The Skilling Game USTS WIN
by krisetchers
Summary: Ten smashers are trapped to play a game, a deadly race to the finish, as they proceed their way through the most dangerous and horrific obstacles. The bombs in their harnesses only have a two day limit. Which of them would survive till the end?
1. Chapter 1: Start Playing

**My first story in the SSB section. Anyway, it's pretty short, but it's just the first chapter. Enjoy!**

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**_Chapter 1: Start Playing_**

"Stop, no!"

"It's for your own good, now shut up!"

"Get that away---"

"Hold it! Enough!"

"Stop or I'll fire, you worthless imbeciles!"

"Assuming you're the one who did this to us, you should stop!"

"Mister, don't, please! Don't do it!"

"Us two will have no witnesses alive by the time we reach public!"

"Stop! Stop!"

"Tell me! Tell me now, where is it?"

"I...can't!"

"Stop it!"

"I said to get away!"

"Let go of it!"

"NO!"

BOOM

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The advertisement was known vastly throughout the different places of the world. Television, radio, computer, billboards, and even posters being hung all over the towns in each different division. Asking someone if they knew or had head about such would always have a reply of: yes. 

But the advertisement for the game was shown worldwide for only a week, and had suddenly disappeared in all places, leaving no trace of it behind. People visited the places where they knew there were advertising of the game, but even when they went to visit a large wall where the advertisement was written in colorful graffiti, or to expect to still see the advertisement on a certain billboard, they always found something else. Many had their advertisement flier on their dinner table or bedroom, only to discover that for some, very strange and disturbing reason, it wasn't there.

It was a mystery to people. Many assumed it was cancelled. Most forgot about it. But not those certain people in the Super Smash Brothers Manor. They still had one of the rare, advertisement fliers which was photocopied three times by a special person. They still had the phone number to apply, and read the rules of only nine people able to enter. Only nine people filled out the form and sent it by mail, promising a secret that they wouldn't tell the others who were unaware of such a game. The prize, the flier said, was 300,000 coins.

They each got a letter back, saying to go to Rogueport at five o'clock straight in the morning, no earlier or later ten minutes. Each letter was exactly the same, and each had a message at the end:

_First person to arrive gets the point. I'll be waiting._

They fought through their fears and minds, and needed every second to win as only three people had reached the final goal. The others had fallen prey to the sick mind of the host. But they all had in a way, even those who managed to survive the torturous frenzy of violence and determination. Determination to live. But it all began with these sentences:

"Pit?"

"Samus?"

"Well, I guess the game starts in that building, since there is a sign pointed to it." Samus sighed heavily, feeling her aching back. She had worn her Power Suit for much too long the previous night.

"What time is it?" Pit asked. "I took the train to come here."

"The last time I checked," Samus replied, "It was almost five in the morning." They both simutaneously looked at the door, with the sign "Game Starts Here" pointed directly at it. Rogueport was completely empty. The waves splashed against the docks nearby.

"Everyone is asleep now."

"Should we enter...?"

"Let's go."

They went to the door, and nervously turned the knob open the wooden door. Then, Pit pushed it open to reveal a dull, small room, as Samus entered immediately. On the table were maps, papers, and remotes. There were harnesses piled all over in the corner of the room, and on a seperate desk, there was a transparent control pad full of buttons and levers with lights flashing off and on. Before any of them could examine any of the unusual devices, a sneeze shot out from behind the wall across from them, making the two players jump in surprise. Pit took out an arrow from his pocket and faced it towards the wall, but Samus held his arm down.

"Wait," she told him.

"We shouldn't wait," came the voice from behind the wall. "The Skilling Game has already begun."

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**I'll try to udate when I'm actually able get my hands on my father's laptop. Anyway, hope you liked it!**


	2. Chapter 2: Follow the Rules

**This is the second chapter, as we get more deeper into the story. Enjoy the evil!**

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**_Chapter 2: Follow the Rules_**

A door suddenly opened from the wall, as Samus and Pit backed away in caution. A figure, dressed in a shiny black robe and black gloves, suddenly walked out of the opening and simply stood there, eyeying his equipment scattered on the table and floor. The person had his hood up and his face couldn't be seen, and instead, there was a blank white mask hiding his facial features along with an amature drawing of a smily face. At that second, another person entered the room. It was Fox McCloud.

"Am I late?" he asked, then looked to see two of his fellow smashers simply standing there with a strange being in front of them. Fox slowly walked his feet over to one of the ten chairs and sat down, in his case, a chair designed to look like an Arwing with its own flashing lights and humming sound, as he tapped his feet in a calm matter. Another person entered from the open door: Popo.

"Sit down, all of you," said the person in the black robe. "Just wait for the others to arrive." He then added, "I specially designed each chair to match your likings." Pit found a chair across the small room made out of marble, which looked just like a chair in the Temple of Palutena and sat down, as Samus saw a chair with metal arm rests the shape of arm cannons.

"I'm confused," said Pit out loud, and then expected the person in the cloak to answer his question. But he simply continued to tap away at the flashing control panel, and brought up a stack of remoted onto the table. Samus mouthed the words, "Be quiet" to him from across the room.

As Roy appeared from the doorway, Popo was looking all over the place for his chair. "Mister," Popo asked, not bothering to step closer to the mencancing figure, "There's no chair that, umm, represents me. If you know what I mean."

"That cucumber over there," he said, without turning to look at him.

"But that's wrong," said Popo. "I'm supposed to have an eggplant---"

"JUST sit down," the person snapped at him, then he turned to his regular, calm voice. "It's a mistake, Popo, I am ashamed to have made." He turned to look at the flashing control panel and rapidly started to press buttons, as Popo had no choice but to simply sit down in his designed chair, which had many plant curls all over it which looked like numerous S's formed together.

"What the hell is this..." Roy said out loud, but Pit simply pulled his arm and pointed over to a comfy, cushioned chair, yet it didn't look comfy anymore. It was burnt to crisp.

"Fire Emblem," groaned Roy, as he sat down on the brittle seat. Then, two people appeared at the open door: Donkey Kong and Dr. Mario. Samus, closest at the entrance, told them what to do as Dr. Mario sat down on a glass chair, which had hundreds of medicine capsules of different capsules jammed inside it. DK saw a cabana rocking chair and sat down.

"Umm, very peculiar," Dr. Mario said out loud as he sat on his chair. The others agreed silently, as they saw that most of the capsules in glass seat had burst open and spilled powder within the inside of the chair.

"Five o'clock for this?" complained DK to Popo and Fox as he settled into his rocking chair. "What is this? We're sitting down in scary chairs in a small room in Rogueport. Mine has an S on the seat of it, and is made of cabana fiber."

Fox looked at him in a way of annoyance as he put his feet against the wall. "I feel the same way about this---"

"By the way, you have the right to talk until I finish up," the person said, picking up the harnneses and slapping them down against the table. "I am your host by the way." Jigglypuff entered the room in a hurry, as she looked at her clock. 5:05 A.M.

"Sit," said Samus, looking at Jigglypuff's confused face, "Over there." She pointed to a wooden chair fit exactly the right size for Jigglypuff, which had pokeballs as feet stools and pictures of music notes painted all over. Jigglypuff went over to her chair, but then looked at the control panel the host was rapidly pressing buttons into. There were control remotes stacked together with rubber bands, and she saw the name of the first one on top: JIGGLYPUFF PRIUN.

"Sit, sit," the host told her as he looked up at her. Jigglypuff walked back into her chair, just as another, the ninth player, entered the room: Ness. He looked around the room and without hesitating, he went over to a chair which looked like a giant yo-yo as a seat, with the back rest being numerous baseball bats. He realized how well-made the seat looked, and he was more than surprised to see a long string attached to the end of the mega yo-yo which curled on the floor like a giant "S". He sat down in his chair besides DK and Jigglypuff.

Everyone felt awkward as they sat in their chairs. Not just for the feeling of their chairs, but sitting down in a small room in a place they weren't familiar as they were anxious to see what was in store for them next. They simply waited as the tapping of the host's fingers pushing remotes on the control panel continued throughout the room, along with the beeping of Fox's unusual and most unique Arwing chair.

"It's only five oh nine!" shouted another person, entering the room in a rude matter. Wario gazed around the small room with a dumbstruck face, looking at everyone sit in their odd-created chairs whom he had discussed with the night in the group meeting the night before. He took a few steps fowards, then fought up a wide, evil-looking grin onto his face.

"Close the door, Wario," the host said, and as Wario did, the host stopped tapping on the control panel. As Wario sat down in a chair shaped out as a miniature motocycle, the host then took out a scissor from the desk and snapped the rubber bands which held the remotes together. He laid them down next to each other on the table, and each player could see that on each white remote was a name of a player in the room. There were ten of them.

"Ten?" Jigglypuff asked quietly out loud. Only a few had understood what she had said.

"Ten remotes of course," the host replied, "One for each player. Use your brain and look around." He turned to look directly at Ness, who was looking deeply at the harness devices in the corner. "Ness," he said, "Is something interesting with those body harnesses?"

Ness looked up, startled at the sudden call of his name. "Well, I feel some strange vibrations coming from them."

"The harnesses won't kill you, would they? By the way, I expected your phsycic powers to be gone by now," the host said, walking over to the corner of the room. Ness looked at him in a strange way as the host picked up the devices. He lay them across the floor next to each other, and the players realized that the harnesses too had their names on it.

"Fox! Enough with that machine noise," the host suddenly barked. Fox looked down at the sign on the front of the ship, which had a message of "When you hear the host first speak, push the green button to respect your friends." Fox relunctantly did so, giving the host a filthy look.

"Play by the rules Fox, and nail directions on the head," the host said. "Same with you other nine. Follow the rules, or you'll be sorry. For those of you with powers, special advantage abilities, do not use them. For those people out there who are aware of those powers you obtain, be warned." The others simply stared at him uneasily.

"So, let us get to these harnesses. Please," he said, picking up one of the harnesses, "Come up here to grab your harness and put these on. They go over your shoulders, and then strap the necessary stuff by clicking them together. Not too hard. Here you go...Pit."

Pit rose from his seat, as the host handed him the harness, but not before eyeing the metal arrow in his back pocket.

"That weapon of yours is pretty dangerous, isn't it Pit?" the host asked. "Be careful not to stab yourself." Pit didn't say anything, but he simply nodded slightly and took the harness from the host and tried to put it on. He was relieved to find it was easy to put on, and the others felt the same way too. But there were other problems. They were heavy for most of them, espiecially for Jigglpuff anf Popo. Two straps were missing from Fox's, making it more swingable at the bottom. Dr. Mario's and Wario's were velcroed together tightly as they picked them up from the ground. DK's harness was far too small.

"Do we have to connect all the straps?" asked Roy, trying to click the straps together.

"Of course, don't state obvious stuff, Roy," the host replied.

"Well, I really don't have to, do I," he said back. The host turned to him, and Roy and the others wondered how the host could see, if he could see at all, through his white mask.

"Follow what I say Roy," the host said. "Don't disobey rules."

"I need mine changed," said DK. "As you can see, this is too tight for me."

The host looked around, then turned to look at him. "I'm afraid we have no extras. Being big is not always good DK. You should discover that as you play the game, but don't wish your size could be frozen in time. Popo?"

"Umm, yes Mister?"

"Take off that winter coat of yours. You will probably get a bit hot in that with that harness on."

He paused to turn around and tap some buttons on the control panel for a few seconds, then turned around. "Everyone, sit now. Sit, Sit." The players sat down in their seats in the best way they could, as they found that wearing the harnesses made it more difficult and uncomfortable to navigate and sit down.

"I am grateful to see that we found enough people to play this game," the host said. "It's called the Skilling Game U.S.T.S. WIN, or just Skilling Game for short. Listen up, for the rules are important. The point of this game is to win the most points. You will get clues to move from place to place, and you must journey on while trying to race past the others."

"Just like the Amazing Race," Fox whispered to DK.

"First person to reach the final goal will win the prize of ten points. Second to arrive would win nine points. Use your mathematical knowledge to figure the rest out, and last place, if there just happens to be one, would win only one point."

"What do you mean, if there happens to be a last place?" Jigglypuff asked. "Is there elimination rounds?"

The host just stared at her through his mask. "I'm just saying that, it's likely that the people far behind would quit at their own conscience. I would if I knew I was trailing behind. Let us continue, because we are running out of time."

He continued, "The harnesses have these mechanical devices in the front, which display your points you have so far. Do not be afraid to touch them. Plus, on your shoulder pads are speakers. Sometimes I will set messages in places to talk, and you can raise and lower the volume, and mute it too. There are ways to get extra points along your journey, so keep that in mind. They will be very helpful. Yet there are consequences. Any questions?"

"Are we allowed to remove the harnesses?" Samus asked the host. "It'll be a bit tiring walking around in this slightly heavy stuff."

"A brave person like you Samus should be too used to carrying heavy stuff."

"I'm talking for the others," explained Samus, "And even for me later on in the game."

"You shouldn't, you wouldn't," the host replied. "Remember, if there are rules, follow them. The prize is three-hundred thousand coins, for those who have forgotten." Everyone was suddenly lightened up as they all seemed to pass through a "Determination" Era. Wario was hyped more than the others.

"Are we going to be on TV?" he asked the host. "There's a camera right there in the corner." Sure enough, there was.

"The crew is deciding on that," the host explained. "This is either going to be a secretized game, or a show for public broadcasting. And one thing Wario, greed could lead to falling. Sometimes teamwork could succeed you further, as I'm sure at least two of you would find so." Wario looked at the host, disagreeing at everything the mysterious person had just said.

"Will the crew be following us at all?" asked Dr. Mario.

"No, you guys are on your own."

"But what if we get injured in some way during the game?" Dr. Mario asked. "We would perhaps happen to need some medical assistance, if someone had passed out or received serious burns or rashes."

"You're a doctor, Edguardo," the host replied, "And a distant cousin of the famous Mario. You will either helps yourselves and get assistance from a generous person if mishaps happen to happen."

"Are the harnesses...waterproof?" asked Jigglypuff. "I'm talking about the point displayer and the speakers."

"They won't electricute you because they are encased in a thin layer of plasma-stained covering," explained the host. "So staying in the water would be safe, as long as you don't drown."

"What kind of ways are there to get extra points?" Roy asked.

"It's for you to discover, Roy. Sometimes it's good to cut risks and take chances." He looked around the room.

"Is everyone clear on this?" the host asked. Most of the players nodded their heads.

"Samus," the host said, picking up one of the remotes from the table and pointing it directly at Samus. Samus stiffened in her seat with a sense of nervousness going over her body as the host pressed a few buttons on the remote. The others looked as Samus' harness beeped once, and a number appeared on the displayer in the middle of her harness: **1**.

"You were the first one to arrive Samus. Being first is not always, and you could be last. You get the point." The host turned to look at all the others.

"The Skilling Game has already started. Good luck." The host picked up a very overlarged leather bag from behind him, and pushed all the remotes inside, along with the large control panel. He turned around and left through the door in the wall, making sure to close it tight behind him as he dissappeared into the door he had just come out from twenty minutes ago.

A majority of the confused players expected the host to come back to them, to tell them something else. But he didn't, as they all stared at the blank wall for a rough thirty seconds.

Roy, who couldn't hold his patience anymore, got up from his crispy seat and tried to find a way to open the knobless door. In fact, he couldn't find where it was. The closed door had blended up with the rest of the wooden wall, and some of the other players got up from their seats and tried their best to find any ridges, or signs that the door had even existed.

"I could swear the door was right here," Pit insisted. Dr. Mario tapped his fist against the area.

"It's hollow," said Dr. Mario.

"Yo, host!" yelled Wario. "Are you there?"

"Shh," said Jigglypuff. "I wouldn't yell like that."

"That host can scare the crap out of me," commented Roy. The others had to agree to themselves; the host creeped them out more than usual.

"This is really strange. This harness is killing me."

"I feel the vibrations of something," said Ness, "Going exceedingly farther away."

"The host?" Popo asked.

"I hate this," said DK. "What is this Skilling Game we signed up for?"

The radio in the corner of the room suddenly let out a sound, catching the attention of all the players in the small room. As they all hurried to gather around it, they found out that it was letting out a recorded message, intended directly to them.

"What the heck---?" Fox started

"Be quiet," Jigglypuff said, cranking up the volume notch so they could hear clearly. It was the host speaking, as the players opened up their airs to the crucial message.

"Hello players. Good luck in your game to reach the finish with the most points. You need your skills, knowledge, strategy, and physical abilities to be the one to succeed completely, and win. But things aren't that easy. Time doesn't go forever in all cases, and in this case, its the Skilling Game. Those harnesses you are wearing are more hazardous than you think." The players looked at each other nervously, before turning their full attention to the radio.

"The Skilling Game will officially end at exactly 48 hours after it has started. In this case, two days until five o'clock. There are bombs built into your harnesses, players, and will deactivate if you do not reach the finish within the time limit."

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**Hope you liked it! Stuff get worse and worse as the story progresses more. And Firekai, never seen for a long time!**

**I will try to update soon as possible.**


	3. Chapter 3: First Clue

**Okay, this is the third chapter (obviously). Enjoy guys!**

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**_Chapter 3: First Clue_**

The others looked down at the devices around their bodies, standing in dreadful silence at the words emitted from the radio.

Buh...bombs?" squeaked Popo, feeling the square shaped device in the front of him with his two hands.

"Get me out of this!" shouted Fox, grabbing the straps of the harness and trying to seperate them with his greatest strengnth. But he was hopeless as he discovered how tight together the starps were; the velcroes felt as if they were glued together and wrapped tightly around with duck tape, and the clickable snaps were impossible to open up. The others were filled with terror as they tried to pull away the harness devices away from their own bodies, but they soon found out themselves how tight and difficult it was to remove them. They were fully locked to them, mechanically

"They're," gasped Roy with a voice of fatigueness and fright, "They're not coming off."

"Don't worry," the radio continued. The host was clever enough to imagine where to pause his recording speech, as he knew how the players would have reacted to his previous sentence.

"Arriving at the finish is the only solution to surviving. Signing up for this game had consequences, players, not only a huge sum of coins at the end. Letting a non-player know about your situation is prohibited. It's the rules, along with the advantage powers rule I had mentioned to you people in person. If rules are broken, they _will _end up with a blast. Feel free to go directly to the finish. Stopping at clues is not necessary at all, but there would always be at least one person to receive one. For those who have those unkind hearts will use their minds to figure what I am trying to direct. Remember, those extra oppourtunities to receive more points during the game can be extremely important. Do not dilly-dally players, as you will discover how important every second of this game will be, and how every second can have an impact to your very own, precious life. Good luck players." The radio beeped, then shut off.

"That bastard!" DK shouted. "What kind of sick game is this?"

"Even the money isn't worth wearing harnesses with bombs that could explode any second," admitted Wario. "I agree, what game is this?"

"I told you we shouldn't of signed up for this game," said Pit, still trying to find to remove his harness. "This was a total scam. A game which would have our lives at stake."

"Maybe the host is joking," thought Dr. Mario. The others looked at him, then shuffled the thought through their minds over and over again.

"I...really don't think it is," said Samus, her voice quivering. "We're going to die for real."

"I hear vibrations coming out from the harnesses," Ness told them. "They match the exact tone as bombs."

"We have to go tell the villagers outside," insisted Jigglypuff, heading towards the door.

"Wait, we can't," said Samus. "The host said that telling other people is against the rules, and if he knows, then..." She simply stopped talking as they all looked again down at their harnesses.

Suddenly, there was a sound from behind them, and they saw a section of the wooden ceiling drop down like a flap, yet in a slow manner as something was making its way down. A triangular pulley was lowered down from the opening in the ceiling, as the players just looked at it in silence. At the end of the pulley was a plastic flap attached to it, saying in dark green letters, **_PULL._**

"Let's pull it," said Roy, "There is no way this could be some kind of deadly trick."

"Okay, well, someone pull it then," said Pit.

"I was being sarcastic," Roy replied.

"Pussies," muttered DK out loud, going up to the pulley as he pulled it down. Something budged against the ceiling from above on the other side of the room, above Popo. DK pulled the pulley harder, and discovered that something was being lowered by another pulley, as the other opening flapped open and emitted a rope with a long, silverish message attached to the end of a hook. Popo looked at it carefully, as the others went around it.

"I think it's the first clue to our first location," said Popo. "It says, 'FIND THE RACCOON IN THE ITALIAN DOLPHIN. ABOVE IS A HOLLOW NOKI.'" The others turned to look at it themselves.

"What does that mean?" asked Ness, furrying his eyebrows.

"How the heck are we supposed to know?" Wario said. "This doesn't make any sense, and I'm out of this stuffy room." He opened the door as a swoosh of fresh air was suddenly felt, as the others went outside also to see the rising sun. According to a clock on a lampost, it was almost 5: 45 A.M.

"So, damn, tight," gasped DK, trying to find any way to loosen the small harness over his shoulders and body.

"You're not the only one," said Jigglypuff, trying to look out at the horizon of the sea. Around the town of Rogueport, nobody was out on the streets yet.

"It's not surprising at how lazy the Rogueport town people are," remarked Wario. "Just like me. Lazy."

"Where do we go now?" asked Popo. "Do we try to find a place to go?"

"I think, there was a motor boat garage somehow on the West Side," Pit recalled. "I passed by it, and there was a boat in it."

"Obviously not a coincidence," Samus thought out loud. "I think that's where we are supposed to go now."

"And we all have to work together to reach the finish," declared Dr. Mario. "If we all want to survive." The others nodded, trying not to think of their deadly fate to come in two days.

"But if we work together, who would get the money?" questioned Wario. The others looked at him.

"Just follow me," said Pit, as the others followed him to the West Side. They passed by Rogueport Center, and they noticed the gallows in the middle of the town. The rope had gone missing.

"The Inn is open," said Ness. "Maybe we could go inside for a break, and ask the innkeeper questions."

"I'd rather continue," said DK, "And hurry up."

They continued down further to the West Side of the town, and they found it as empty as the previous places. They could immediately see a boat garage near the dock with a closed door, and a single motor boat was floating outside on the water. They made their way to the boat.

"It's...small," noticed Ness.

"Better than a rowboat," said Pit. "We'll all get on it. It's called, 'Speedy Power Gun'". On the side of the boat was the name, written in waxed paint.

"On this?" said Fox. "How would all ten of us be comfortable in this small boat?"

"Just get on," demanded Samus. "Let's head off now." They got onto the boat one by one, being careful not to tip over and land in the water. The last one to board was Jigglypuff.

"Get on," said Pit. Jigglypuff looked at the boat in doubt.

"I'm not sure we're supposed to get on it," said Jigglypuff.

"Hurry up!" said Ness. "I finally got the engine running, and we need to accelerate it to hold up the gas." Jigglypuff stepped onto the boat, as Dr. Mario and Ness hit the on buttons simutaneously. DK pulled the long cord, and the boat started at top speed, leaving the dock in a split second. Everyone fell back at the sudden movement as they tumbled into each other, and as Jigglypuff was about to lose her balance and fall back, Fox grabbed her at his instincts and brought her onto the speeding boat, waves splashing into their faces. Fox looked at her in disgust.

"I shouldn't of grabbed you," he said in an annoyed voice. Jigglypuff just looked at him, having a mixed feeling of relief and joy she had been saved.

"I---"

"Shut up, balloon head," Fox snapped over the soaring wind. Jigglypuff felt a feeling of anger come over her.

"Slow down!" shouted Roy, as water sprayed into their faces and was blinding all ten of them in a white fury. Dr. Mario pressed a button on the control panel of the motor boat, and the boat suddenly stopped. Everyone bounced in their places as they settled down, still in the middle of the sea.

"Do we even know where we are going?" asked Pit. "Does anyone even remember the clue?" They all looked at each other, hoping at least one of them had paid any attention to it. "The clue in the room?" The players just sat down in the crowded motor boat.

"I think I remember it," said Jigglypuff. "It's---"

"We'll try to lower the engine, said Ness. "Pull the cord DK."

DK pulled the engine cord once more, and the boat started suddenly fast again, this time, faster than before. The sitting players had fallen back once more as the splashes appeared in their faces and around the front of the boat. The players were getting soaked with the ocean water, as Dr. Mario struggled to control the steering wheel, but Roy grabbed onto it instead and steered out of the way. Ness saw the speed of the boat on the conrol panel: 95 miles per hour.

"What are you doing!?" yelled Wario. "Slow the boat!"

"Stop!" DK pulled the cord in a hurry, but to his surprise, it snapped off and hit him directly in the torso as he fell from the boat, to the shock of the others. The boat made a huge bump against the water, sending Popo over the edge along with Jigglypuff, and as Pit tried to tighten his arms around the metal edge, he was knocked away along with the other four.

"Turn back!" shouted Samus. "Popo just fell off!" A huge splash of water struck Ness directly as he too fell away from the boat, and Roy turned the motor boat steering wheel the best he could to the left. Samus fell back at a gigantic bump, and crashed right into Dr. Mario, sending the both of them off the boat in a white flash.

"Holy shit," Fox gasped, as he jumped out of the boat when he saw what they were heading against.

In a split second after, Roy shielded his eyes as they collided with a stationery yacht in the middle of the sea, throwing him fowards as the motor boat was destroyed into pieces at impact. There was a blast of explosion, and pieces of metal and boat were thrown in all directions and littered into the sea. There was silence.

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**What has become of the players? What will happen next among the people?**

**Please, reviews will really help! I hope you are enjoying it so far, trying to update as soon as possible.**


	4. Chapter 4: Killer Delfino

**Chapter 4!**

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_**Chapter ****4: Killer Delfino**_

Popo stirred awake as he felt water touch the tip of his bare feet. His face and arms were sticky with sand, as he looked at the place he was at. He heard the sound of splashing of ocean water. Right behind him, something was casting a tall, lean shadow, and as he got up to his feet and turned around, it was a palm tree.

Dr. Mario woke up. They knew what they were on: an island.

"Where the heck are we, Popo?" asked Dr. Mario in confusion.

"An...island," replied Popo. They both felt wide awake, even thought they had just woken up a few seconds ago. They were on a small island, and a few hundred feet away from them was a thriving, shining town, and only a mere few feet away from them was a wooden boat, with ambitious fishermen on board. Around and on the island they were at were the destroyed debris of the boat, and a number of the players were scattered across the small island as well. A body stirred in the corner of Dr. Mario's eye.

"Where, are we?" Samus asked them, getting up to her feet. She looked around at the boat pieces and unconscious people, then looked down at her sandy feet.

"We have to wake the others up," said Dr. Mario, "I don't know how much time had passed."

"We're all still in the game," said a voice from behind them. It was Jigglypuff, already risen to her feet.

"When did you wake up?" asked DK.

"DK,! Dr. Mario said. "When did you suddenly appear?" DK shrugged in confusion.

"Our harnesses have watches in the back pockets," Jigglypuff told them. "I realized that back in Rogueport." The others felt behind them in their leather pockets, and sure enough, they each felt a small watch. But none of them bothered to reach for it and take it out, except for Pit.

"It's 8: 19 A.M," said Pit. "We've been sleeping for over two hours."

"You're awake as well Pit," said Samus. "Is there anyone else left?" Their eyes wandered on the body of Fox, laying down on the other side of the minature island. Fox was breathing, as his tail was twitching, and the others felt a sense that perhaps they shouldn't bring the player with them in the search to the finish. He was a nuissance and useless person to the group.

"Let's wake him up," said Dr. Mario, and the others looked at him in disappointment. The doctor didn't have to shake him up however, but Fox immediately hopped up to his feet at that exact second, sniffing the air and looking around as the others looked at him.

"What are you guys doing?" he questioned, looking at where they were. He looked down at his body and grabbed his harness oncee again, trying to pull it away from him with all his strength. But it was futile.

"We're still stuck in this hell," sighed Samus. The others shuddered.

"Be happy," muttered Fox, "You have a point, we don't." Everyone looked at Samus' harness displayer device in the middle of her body, and there was a large 1 displayed, while on all the six others' harnesses, there was a useless score of zero.

"We don't know where we are, but the last thing I remember was falling of the boat," DK told them. "I think we ended up following a current, along with some boat pieces."

"What happened to the others?" Samus realized, "Ness, Roy, and Wario?" Everyone looked around, and went to all the corners of the tiny island and tried looking out in the water near them, or even tired looking under pieces of the boat debris scattered among the place.

"Over here!" shouted Jiggplypuff. The others ran over to her to see what she had discovered. There were footprints in the sand leading off into the water, and one of them was an imprint of a shoe with a large W at the bottom.

"Oh," said Dr. Mario, suddenly remembering something which had happened earlier, "I remember Wario and Roy leaving us, and they set out on their own. But I then went asleep, and, umm that's all I remember..."

"Those two idiots by themselves," Fox snickered. "I could do better own my own."

"We still all have to work together."

"Where's Ness then?" Pit wondered out loud. They all had a horrid feeling in the pit of their stomaches, a feeling that Ness had been either lost and desolate on another current, or possibly, sunk below.

"Wait," realized DK, looking at the town a distance away from them, "I know this place. It's the warm tropical lights of Isle Delfino, a vacationing spot for people of all ages, and filled with rich enjoyment and succulent seafood."

"You must know this place by heart," Popo joked at DK's describing sentence.

"That's it," said Jigglypuff. "The clue said something about going to the Italian Dolphin and finding a raccoon. We're here, in the Italian Dolphin. Isle Delfino."

"How on earth do you remember that?" questioned Pit. "Are we just stupid, or do you have special memorizing skills wherever we go?" He reaached behind him and felt the small wings on his back with his two hands.

"I'm always the best," Jigglypuff replied.

"Let's go now," Samus told them. "We'll lose time if we just stay on this island. Everyone swim to the shore."

"Too, weak," said DK. "I'll drown in this small, tight, son of a bitch harness if I try to swim."

"Tough luck," said Fox, and he took his first steps into the water towards Isle Delfino. But he turned around when he realized the others didn't even bother to move, or even follow him. They simply stared at him or out at the horizon.

"Okay, I give up," he snorted, walking up to the others. "How are we supposed to swim three hundred feet with these heavy stuff?"

"Float on boat pieces," suggested Jigglypuff, "Then we could paddle towards the beach." The others thought of this idea as an extremely good one, and they did the following as they brought numerous boat debris to the shore of the island. All of the pieces were damaged and burnt all over, seperated by the rest of the boat in odd formations. DK found the cord he had been pulling earlier on their failed boat trip, split in half under the engine tank. Popo grunted as he rolled over a large piece of the engine closer to the water. Ness attempted to pick up a a large piece of the motor, but a jolt of electricity shocked him back with a yell.

"Ness?" Pit asked. "You okay?"

"I just got a static shock," he muttered. He picked up the metal motor.

"Everybody got something?" said Dr. Mario. Each player was carrying a piece of the boat, a piece they were going to use to paddle to the Isle Delfino shore.

"I'll trade with you DK," offered Popo, displaying a large piece of the shattered boat engine on the sand. DK was holding a chipped piece of the boat edge, obviously, a piece too small for him to balance across the water.

"That will help me a lot," DK said, surprised at the kind offer. He grinned as Popo handed him the huge piece, and he gave the smaller piece to the young player.

The players grabbed onto the boat pieces and swam off the edge, paddling their arms and feet off the island as they rode the pieces like bogeyboards. The journey was more difficult than they had thought, and at the first one hundred feet, they felt fatigueness in their arms and legs.

"I think we're, ugh," said Pit, trying to stay on his sharp boat piece, "More than half-way there."

"I think I can just swim from here," Fox realized. He did so as he let go of his boat piece and swam the rest of the fifty feet by himself. The others watched Fox swim farther away from them. Fox was a tiny speck as he reached the shore. "Asshole," muttered DK.

"I can't swim," Jigglypuff told them.

"Then let's just paddle our way more," DK said, but Samus let go of her boat piece and swam towards the shore of the town, where Fox was lying down, tired and fatigued. She finally reached the sand of the town, and fell onto her knees in exhaustion.

"I...beat...you," he managed to say between breaths. Samus rolled her eyes at his useless sentence.

"Wanna...have fun?" Fox managed to say between breaths. Samus looked at him and saw a grin on his sly, foxy face.

"Ex...excuse me?" she replied back in a tone of confusion. "Are you saying what I think you're saying?"

"The others are so...far away now," said Fox, grinning in breaths. "You know how sexy you look without your suit."

"You fucking perv," Samus told him, looking away with a disgusted look on her face as she fell back onto the sand, tired.

The other took around five minutes to reach where the other two were, and they littered their boat pieces into the deep of the water. A group of ten to eleven piantas were playing volleyball on the beach, happily and worry-free, the exact opposite of how the players were feeling in their situation. Some of the volleyball players turned to look at the group of people coming onto the shore and trudging across the beach and wearing awkward harness devices around each of their bodies.

The players in their harnesses wanted to let out a word to the others, but they feared the outcome the host had stated earlier on breaking such a rule. As a majority of the piantas looked at the players trudge across the sand, the players simply looked down at their walking feet and tried to avoid any eye contact. They all feared the mysterious host, and as they were all thinking of the menancing figure in simutaneous silence, they heard his voice.

"Hell, hel, hel, o, groups, first, pla, first, place re, first , reac, firs, hello, reached, this, hell, o, first place, rea, so, game, reach, fir, hello, first, ga, is, amus, first, amusing, win, raccoo, reach, amusing, game, rea, hello, rac, challen, rea, firs, oon---" The speakers of the harnesses were echoing back and forth within the seven of them, as they all looked at each other in confusion and silence.

"Mute all of yours!" Jigglypuff demanded quickly. Everyone looked at their shoulder pads and saw the volume control buttons; a plus and a minus. The others rapidly pressed the subtract button as fast as they could, and the speaking voice gradually become more clear and easier to understand, as they all listened to Jigglypuff's harness.

"...the dangers lurk on this place. And as a reminder, no telly telly your game to others. Good luck in finding your first clue, and be the first to finish with the most points." The speaker on Jigglypuff's harness finsihed.

"Well, that sucks dick," Fox stated, "We missed his message."

"I hate that voice," Popo admitted. "It gives me chills when I imagine looking at that host again."

"I think it said something about a raccoon and finding a shell, and to watch out for dangers around Isle Delfino," Samus said.

"I don't remember the word shell in there," DK muttered.

"Let's go and find the raccoon," Dr. Mario told them. "I remember that we had to find a raccoon for the next clue." They stepped onto the walkway of Isle Delfino, where only a few people were walking on the pavement. There were stores along the side of the building, each having a sign outside of it which had a fruit displayed on it.

"I don't remember this place being so...high-tech when I last came here," DK noticed as they stepped through the mechanical doors of the banana store. It was a small fruit supermarket in the inside, and all fruit sections were connected besides each other by different doors leading to each section. There were bananas all over the side of the store and different items were being sold: banana smoothies, banana cakes, banana muffins, banana syrup, and other foods with banana ingrediants

"There's nobody here," said Samus.

"Cool place," Popo commented, looking at a section of "Banana Toothpaste".

"Let's go somewhere else," Dr. Mario told them, and the others agreed that the place would not help them. They went through the door through the right, and saw a sign as they entered the other section.

"Are stuff too hot for you?" read DK. "Hot chili peppers will make you scream, "SUNSHINE!" There was pepper foods everywhere; pepper sauce, hot chili chocolate, and peppermint candy all on one side. They all saw that some of the peppermints had been scattered across the floor, unwrapped, but they weren't layed down by accident. The small candies had littered a trail leading behind the counter, and to a shut door in the back of the room. The only people present at the time were the harnessed players.

"It's leading us to the back of that room," Samus realized, looking at the peppermint. "Let's go in." The others agreed silently.

"I hear a whirring sound," Fox told the others. "Coming from somewhere. Too bad Ness isn't here to use his wicked vibrations."

"Look!" Jigglypuff pointed to a picture on the wall near the exit, where an advertisement for boat rentals was present. On the picture was a small round house on a dock, and standing in front of it was a raccoon in a yellow lifevest.

"Is that outside somewhere?" Dr. Mario asked. "If it is, then that's where we have to go." They all exited through the doors of the shop, only to be greeted by a policeman pianta waiting outside wearing a bulky, blue uniform.

"People, entering the stores before opening time is non-permitted," stated the policeman.

"Sorry mister," said Popo quickly, "But this is our first time here, and we're looking for a boathouse with a raccoon owner."

"Boathouse? Turn that corner," said the policeman, pointing, "And going all the way down, where the boathouse would be in view. However, the boathouse owner Johnny Nook called in sick today." The policeman took a good look at the mechaincal devices around each of the players' bodies before continuing.

"I would like to see your harnesses," the policeman told them, "Before you go."

"The host," whispered Samus. The players exchanged nervous glances immediately, knowing that the harnesses would activate if the host sensed that they were sharing their info with another non-player.

"Please show me your harness young man," the police pianta said, grabbing Popo's harness. Pit pulled Popo away from the pianta's grasp.

"Run!" Pit shouted to the others, brushing them away. "Run! Run!" As the baffled policeman looked at the others dash away suddenly, the players ran down to the place the pianta had instructed the boathouse was located. The policeman broke immediately into a run after them.

Pit was grabbing Popo as they both ran, and Jiggylpuf grabbed onto Samus as she brought both of them away from the policeman chasing behind them. They turned the corner and saw the boathouse at the end of the white dock.

"Stop running immediately!" shouted the pianta only a few feet behind the group. "Stop!"

"That house!" Dr. Mario panted as they all ran for a roundish house with a leavy roof and a wooden door with an indent on the side of it to pull it open. Pit reached the dock first, but Fox ran past him and ran smack face into the door with a heavy thud. Pit grabbed him back, but Fox shook him away.

"I got here first," panted Fox, and put his fingers in the indent and opened the wooden door wide. Pit, who was looking behind at the others running to catch up to them, turned around suddenly when he heard the sound of an unusual click

"Get out!" yelled Pit in a tone of shock. Behind the wooden door was an object hanging by a set of wires: a loaded double-barreled gun. The wooden door creaked open even more, and as the trigger was about to be pulled completely, Pit grabbed Fox's harness and pulled him back, out of the way of the two firing bullets which were shot from the weapon. Jigglypuff fell back into the water as the bullets flew by her, and Dr. Mario ducked out of the way in the nick of time.

"Do not run from the officials!" the policeman shouted as he grabbed onto Popo's harness for the second time. Before DK could stop the event in front of his eyes from happening, the speeding bullets which resembled a tight blur of metal hit the pianta directly in the left cheek of his face. DK and Samus was hit with a warm, splatter of blood which splashed their faces and clothes, as the policeman stood immobilized for a split second, his face bloodied with two bullets struck directly in his face. All eyes were on the pianta as the figure toppled sideways, hitting into the side of the dock before sliding into the water below with a splash large enough to wet the platform, as Popo screamed with all his might. DK went up to Popo and covered his mouth with his unbloodied hand, as the others all stood silent, their gasps increasing heavily and heavier. Samus gave a cry of shock as she tried wiping the blood off with water from another section of the dock, and all the others were backing away from the scene in dreadfull horror.

"No...oh my god," gasped Pit. DK immediately ran to where Samus was, and jumped into the water to wash the blood splattered all over him in a gruesome fashion. Young Popo was traumatized as he stepped away from the body floating in the water, and shut his eyes as he simply stood still in the middle of the dock walkway.

"Shit!" yelled Fox. "He just got shot! The policeman just got hit in the face!"

"Calm down," stuttered Dr. Mario, turning to look at the others, "We need to call the ambulance now."

"He's frickin' dead, doctor!"

"More like leave this place as fast as we and stop playing...we can't!" Jigglypuff exclaimed in a voice of terror. "We're trapped in bomb devices! We can't just run away. We have to finish. The game." DK and Samus came running down the dock towards the boathouse, soaked and terrified, as DK grabbed Popo's hand and brought him past the dead body to the boathouse. Pit looked in shock at the gun, hanging by wires right behind the entrance of the boathouse.

"Oh my god," Samus gasped, looking from under the hanging gun as she entered the house. DK grabbed it from the wires, and as he attempted to pull it down, it fired once again as the trigger was pressed, straight at the wooden floor. Everyone jumped at the sudden shot at such a close range, as Fox kicked him harshly with his foot.

"Shit! Watch what you're doing primate!" Fox shouted. DK glared at him and raised his fist, as Fox shrunk back. He was no match to the monkey.

There was a sign right beside the door of the house, and Pit pulled out the thumbtack and flipped it down.

**First person to arrive here would regret being so, like a deer entering the clear opens.**

"It was a trap," hissed DK. "This host is taking things way too far. Someone just got killed!"

"On the wall," Pit pointed out, "Look." The players suddenly dropped the matter of the dead policeman as they all entered the tiny boathouse, and saw writing in blue paint written across the wall in large letters:

**_Wrong raccoon, and this time, BAY!_**

"Wrong raccoon?" repeated Fox. "Is this more crappy, nonsense writing?"

"Maps," noticed Popo, running over to a cylinder bin with maps sticking out of the container. The others ran over to it, and each grabbed one for themselves. DK scrolled his plastic map open.

"This is a map...of the entire Isle Delfino," DK stated. "We're in Delfino Plaza right now, and there's an X directly where we're marked."

"Bay?" asked Dr. Mario, "A bay place?"

"Noki Bay," pointed out Samus, as the others looked and saw where it was. But Samus' face suddenly dropped as she looked at her own map. There was a post-it note attached right below Noki Bay on the plastic map, with scrawny writing written in blue ink. It was a message.

_"Hello player. You can now have a choice, to take chances or continue on. Behing the boathouse is a box, and if opened, will deduct a point from your harness. But within the glass box are instructions to a shortcut to Noki Bay. Take advantage and risk, or avoid. Make your choice._

"What's wrong Samus?" DK questioned, looking at the surprised face of Samus staring down at her map. They were all exiting the door of the boathouse already. as Samus ran to join the exiting others.

"Let's go, now," Dr. Mario said to the others. "People will discover the body." As the others stood hesitant and continued their talking of deep worry and fear, Samus was unnoticed as she slipped back from the terrified group. She snuck her way to the back of the boathouse, where the post-it note had stated, was the glass box. There was a scroll tied with a rubber band within it, as Samus stood her ground. She reached her hand over to the lid.

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**Stay in store for more! Please review for some suggestions, because I could really use them on what happens next. **


	5. Chapter 5: Two Seperated

**Wow, update the next day! I was supposed to go somewhere on Sunday, but discovering that it was cancelled, I typed this chapter up. Please enjoy :(****_

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**_Chapter 5: Two Seperated_**

Wario stirred awake as he felt water touch the tip of his bare feet. His face and arms were sticky with sand, as he looked at the place he was at. He heard the sound of splashing of ocean water. Right behind him, something was casting a tall, lean shadow, and as he got up to his feet and turned around, it was a palm tree.

"Where am I?" Wario said out loud. As he looked around, it became more clear at where he was located: An island.

"Is that you Wario?" said a voice from behind him. It was Roy, already risen to his feet. The two of them looked around the miniature island and saw the players, scattered across the sand either asleep or unconsious. Wario rubbed his face with his two gloves.

"That town looks really familiar," Wario said to Roy, pointing to a thriving town in the distance.

"All the others, are asleep," Roy told him. "We could, like, get a head start."

"Maybe not," said a voice from behind the two of them. Wario and Roy turned around to see Dr. Mario, sitting down on the sand. He was taking out a glass bottle of medicine pills from the inside of his coat.

"Go back to sleep," Wario groaned, "We're sick of the 'Stay together as a team' thing." Dr. Mario took a medicine pill from the bottle and popped it into his mouth, then rinsed it down by sipping out of a cut-open coconut.

"Why taking medicine right now, besides the fact that you're a doctor?"

"Stress relievers," Dr. Mario replied, taking another one of the pills into his mouth.

"Edguardo, I'm pretty sure you aren't supposed to take more than a one a day," Roy told him. Dr. Mario shook his head.

"Under certain conditions," Dr. Mario replied. It was the best lie he could think of.

"Anyway, uh, let's go and leave," Wario said, grabbing Roy. Roy turned to leave, but Dr. Mario grabbed his foot.

"We have, to stay together," Dr. Mario stated, "Are you aware of how deadly this game is? These harnesses could blow any second, and if you get lost, you would never reach the end. So stay." Wario and Roy exchanged glances with the slightest tone of nervousness.

"But we'll beat you guys and win the 300k," Roy said back. "Greed is my weakness." He attempted to step again further, but Dr. Mario tightened his grip around his foot.

"Roy, if you happen to get lost---"

"Let go of me Doctor!" Roy tired pulling even harder away from his grasp, but fell down onto the sand instead in a frenzy.

"Don't go ahead!"

"SHUT UP! SHUT UP!" Roy picked up a coconut from besides him and hit Dr. Mario right in the center of his temple, causing the doctor to fall backwards onto the sand with a heavy thud. Roy froze, dropping the fruit from his hand.

"You...you didn't kill him, did you?" Wario asked in shock. Dr. Mario suddenly let out a deep breath. He was unconsious.

Roy let out a sigh of relief. "I hate being stopped," he finally said. Dr. Mario's face had coconut juice all over it when the coconut had hit him, and in the sunlight, his face looked wax-covered. Roy turned to look at the boat pieces all over the island.

"I bet we followed a current here. Let's go swim to that town."

"Isle Delfino," Wario realized.

"What did you call me?"

"Not you, idiot," Wario snorted, "That city is Isle Delfino Plaza."

"Then let's go," Roy said. "Before anyone wakes up."

"Bah," Wario replied. "I'm too lazy to swim all the way over there. We need a boat." They both looked at a large piece of the destroyed boat on the edge of the island, and as they both approached it, they knew that they could both paddle to shore on it.

"Use these as oars," Roy said, picking up a few long pieces of palm wood from the tree. "Push the boat to the water."

"Too lazy," Wario replied. Roy glared at him.

"Okay, we'll BOTH push the boat to the shore," Roy corrected. Wario relunctantly tried to roll the boat to the edge of the island, as Roy tried his best to push at all. As they turned it upright and was ready to board the large boat piece, balancing was the difficulty of rowing to the town.

* * *

"Wario, move to the left!" yelled Roy. They were only a few feet from the shore of the town. Wario was paddling too hard as his palm bark paddle broke in half, and they were both exhausted. Wario stepped to the right, and the boat piece flipped over suddenly as they both managed to paddle their own the rest of the twenty feet to the island. They fell onto the sand. 

"We...made it," gasped Roy. He got up to his feet, and as he got up, a watch from a pocket of his harness fell out. He grabbed it and read the time: 8: 16 A.M.

"Must...eat food," groaned Wario, as he slowly made his way up from the ground. "I'm starving."

The place had only a few people walking around, as they both walked onto the walkway of Delfino Plaza, and Wario immediately spotted a store called "Bingo Bananas".

"Food!" he shouted, "Let's enter now!"

"Wait a minute," Roy told him. Something against the side of a building on the left of him had caught his attention, and he went up to advertisment printed against the wall. It showed a picture of a small, round house with a leavy green roof, and in front of the house was a raccoon in a lifevest.

"Hello player."

"Who was that?" Wario said, turning around.

"It's our harnesses," Roy realized. "It's the person in that smiley face mask who's talking. Shhhh."

"You have reached the first location of this game. I hope you find it very amusing and complex as you continue on. Remember this clue: There are more than one raccoon in Isle Delfino, and you are near the fake one. Above is the hollow noki, and within the hollow noki is the clue to continue on. And watch out, the dangers lurk on this place. And as a reminder, no telly telly your game to others. Good luck in finding your first clue, and be the first to finish with the most points." Both of their harnesses shut off.

"I knew it," said Roy, "We need to find a raccoon, and...over there." Roy took a few steps more, and saw a distance away the exact same house in the poster advertisement. They traveled their way to the white dock, then to the end where the boathouse was. Wario put his fingers in the indent and pulled the wooden door open.

"Holy Neptune!" he yelled, stepping back and shielding his body. But he relaxed when he realized that the object hanging by wires in front of him, a double-barrelled shotgun, did not activate. Roy ducked as he entered the house, and so did Wario as he passed under the gun.

"Why is there a gun hanging by the entrance?" Roy asked. "Was it supposed to shoot?"

"I think this letter explains it," Wario replied. He grabbed a piece of paper hanging besides the gun on another wire, and read it out loud.

"Hello player. By following the directions below, you can earn a point by setting up the gun to activate the next time the door is opened. Close the door all the way, hook the blue wire around the trigger of the gun, and exit through the window. Getting an advantage could lead to another player's demise. Make you choice." Wario looked at Roy, and to his surprise, Roy wrapping the blue wire around the trigger of the hanging gun.

"Look," Wario told him, "I may be lazy, adventurous, snobby, and a bit money obsessed and largely overweight, but I'm sane enough not to set up a trap like that." Roy looked up after he had finished setting up the gun.

"I need, the point," Roy replied. "I'll be the one to reach the end with the most points." Suddenly there was a beep, and the 0 on Roy's harness device turned to a 1 in the blink of an eye. Roy grinned.

"What is this?" Wario asked, opening up the note again. There was a cardboard sign, folded in half and thumbtacked at the top. As Wario pulled out the thumbtack, the small sign flipped down and revealed a message: **First person to arrive here would regret being so, like a deer entering the clear opens.**

"Huh? Is this some sort of clue?"

"I think it could be used to warn the others," Roy said. "Like, entering the door would get you shot, and being the first door to be in the opens would get shot first."

"You're an ass for setting that gun up," Wario snorted. Just then, the harness of Roy spoke again.

"You have chosen to set up the gun in the sake of your point. Exit through the window, and hang the sign within the note outside of the door, as a warning for the sake of the others. Never go near this boathouse again longer than the next thirty seconds, or your harnesses will activate." Roy and Wario exchanged glances of nervousness, as they climbed out the window the fastest they could.

"Put the sign in front of the door!" Roy hissed. Wario took the small sign from his pocket and thumbtacked besides the door, and the both of them ran fromt he dock, further, further, until they were back in front of the banana shop.

"Phew," said Wario, "I'm starving more than a chili pepper being left out in the cold of Snowflake Lake." They both looked up and saw a sign: Sunshine Chili Peppers. Without hesitation, they both entered the store trhough the mechanical doors.

"Are stuff too hot for you?" read Roy, reading of the sign besides the entrance. "Hot chili peppers will make you scream, "SUNSHINE!" There was pepper foods everywhere; pepper sauce, hot chili chocolate, and peppermint candy all on one side. They both saw that some of the peppermints had been scattered across the floor, unwrapped, but they weren't layed down by accident. The small candies had littered a trail leading behind the counter, and to a shut door in the back of the room. The only people present at the time were the harnessed players.

"Boy, doesn't that trail of candy look suspicious?" Roy said. "Nah, can't be anything related to this game."

"Why isn't there anybody here?" Warios said. "Anyway, let's go here!" He dashed to the other section of the store through a set of doors on the side, and Roy had no choice but to follow him.

"Wario?" Roy called out. Wario was nowhere in sight. He looked around the place, then looked at the name of the store: Spiky Durians. There were durian food all over the place, but in the corner of the medium-larged room were smashed durians, placed right in front of a door. The splats spelled out a question mark in an obvious formationn.

"Wario! Get out here now!" Roy shouted, banging his fists aginst the door. The knob was locked.

Wario had already entered the door a few seconds prior, just when Roy had spotted its existence, and as it closed shut behind him, Wario tried all he could to open the door as he tried turning the knob. But Wario's attention was turned to five durians, placed besides each other on a wooden table in the middle of the room. The room was perhaps forty square feet of area, and as Wario took a step fowards to the strange arrangement, his harness suddenly spoke out.

"Hello Wario, you have stumbled across one of my games, to test your cleverness and determination, but also your strength. Hidden inside the durians on the table are two things: A card which you may scan in front of your harness to gain a point, or, a key. A key to unlock your harness and bring you out of the Skilling Game." Wario's eyes widened at the sentence.

"Sometimes easier solutions involve points. This room is a durian itself, and so will the door to the exit. Make you choice." The harness stopped talking.

"Point or key?" Wario asked out loud to himself. He wanted to take the harness off his body, no matter how much money was at the end of the game. He went up to the table with the five durians, and as he touched the middle one, there was an ominous beeping sound which echoed throughout the room. Wario stepped back as something above him started to move with a loud, trudging sound, and then there was a whirring sound coming from somewhere around him.

He looked up in horror as spikes were suddenly protruded from the ceiling, and just as he thought, the ceiling started to inch its way, heavily and slowly, towards the floor of the room. Wario looked down at the durian and saw how exact the spikes above him represented a durian.

Frantically, he picked up he middle one and smashed it with his fist. A stinging sensation was felt as the thorns pierced his hand, as he knew that he has to find another way of opening the thorny fruits. The ceiling was slowly proceeding closer to him, as he smashed the durian onto the ground and repedeatly stomped on it, until it had split open and exposed the sticky, yellow insides scattered all over the floor. He searched the inside of the durian with his two hands. Nothing.

"Fuck!" he yelled. He picked up the durian on the far right as quick as he could, and knocked the wooden table away. Under the table, a spinning spike was revealed, as Wario grabbed the durian and thrusted it into the rapidly spinning device on the ground. The durian splattered all over the place as it was strewn everywhere, thorns and insides. Wario wiped the juice off his eyes and looked around the room. There was no sign of an object. As Wario cursed out again, he had a split second to stare at the spinning spike. There was a word spinning on it in the tight blurr.

"Cy..dorg?" he whispered to himself.

The room was getting smaller in height, as Wario realized how much in danger he was. Without warning, the spikes above him alligned in perfect formations above him started to spin rapidly in a deafening whirr, as they were moving in closer to the frightened player. Wario hurriedly grabbed a third durian and thrusted it onto the spinning spike. Along with the remains of the splattered durian, Wario saw a card get thrown into the air and sail its way into the corner of the room. As he took a step towards it, he looked up. The ceiling with the rotating spikes suddenly dropped a foot down, sending Wario toppling to the ground in fear

He crawled to the exit of the exit of the door instead, but as he looked at the doorknob, needles had been protruded out of it like a pincushion. He stood up, just as the tip of a spike from the ceiling drilled the top of his hat off in a sudden twist. He yelled in surprise as he fell back to the floor.

"Help me!" he hollered, banging his hands on metal door. Gathering his endurance, he sunk his hand to the doorknob, sending five sharp needles through the palm of his hand and out of the back of his fist. He cried out in pain as he managed to turn the knob open, and he pushed open the door.

Roy stepped back as the door opened, and Wario immediately crawled out of the room into the durian store, just as the ceiling had reached the floor of the room. The spinning spikes which were scratching against metal suddenly stopped spinning and were pulled back inside, as the ceiling dropped even more, and all that was visible in the room was a large piece of metal blocking the entrance. Roy stared speechlessly at Wario, who was looking at his bleeding hand in agony.

"What...what...the hell happened?" Roy exclaimed in shock. "I couldn't hear anything! What happened to your hand?"

"It was a game," Wario replied, sinking his hole-filled hand into a nearby icebox. "And I never want to see another damn durian ever again in my life." Roy stared at him, shocked and dumbfounded.

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**What will happen next?? I will love review:)**


	6. Chapter 6: Journey to the Top

**Enjoy!**

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**_Chapter 6: Journey to the Top  
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"God, DAMN!" shouted Wario, regaining his conscious from the grueling game he had just come out of. "I almost died in there!"

"You said that spikes on the ceiling were coming down on you?" Roy asked in bewilderment. "Durian spikes?"

"Not those, you idiot," Wario snapped. "Actual, metal spinning spikes were getting closer to me."

"Why didn't you get out right away?"

"Because," Wario started, but then paused before continuing to talk, "The host said that inside the durians was a key which would unlock the harness. I couldn't find it in time." He sighed heavily.

"Grab a plastic bag with ice and let's get moving," Roy said finally. "We could reach the finish and disactivate these harnesses." They both exited the durian shop in a hurry, only to see that to the right of them, a policeman trying to grab Popo's harness. Not only was Popo there, but the rest of the players as well.

"It's them," Wario whispered out loud, and at that exact second, the entire group started running away, around the corner. Roy grabbed Wario's sleeve and pulled the two of them after the group, who was being trailed by the pianta policeman in a frantic chase.

"Don't tell me where I think they're going," Roy said in an uneasy tone. But as they continued to run, they saw that Pit and Fox had already reached the boathouse at the end of the dock. Wario and Roy hid a distance away, behind a post.

"Crap!" Roy silently cursed to himself. "They're going to open the door!"

Fox pulled the wooden door open to expose the gun hanging midair, and as Wario and Roy held their breaths in horror, the double-barreled shotgun let out two bullets in a metal blurr. Pit pulled Fox back right before the weapon fired, and the bullets flew past Dr. Mario and Jigglypuff, and struck somewhere among the group of DK, Samus, Popo, and the policeman. Roy's blood froze, and so did everybody else's at the scene. They saw the policeman pianta stumble sideways and fall into the water, as the rest of the players at the dock began to go crazy, frantic and terrified as they were all truck with horror. Wario turned slowly to Roy in utter shock.

"You fucking killer!" exclaimed Wario. "Look what you did!" Roy just stood where he was, speechless.

"I didn't...know. I wanted that point so badly." The group of seven people were entering the boathouse already, frightened and stunned.

"You greedy, selfless...I give up," said Wario. He gave Roy a look of disgust and loath.

"Let's come out to them when they exit the boathouse again." Roy did nothing but nod his head.

After a few minutes, the players exited the boathouse. After signaling so each other, Wario and Roy both walked out of their place, looking lost and confused as they tried to make it as conspicous to the players that they were in their presense as they walked by.

Jigglypuff was the first to notice. "Hey guys," she perked up suddenly. "It's Wario and Roy! They look lost."

"I wonder why they keep on glancing at us in the midst of their walking around," Fox snickered. They group of seven marched up to the two of them.

"Hey, you two," said Dr. Mario. "You should join us and work together."

"Hello people!" exclaimed Roy. "I hope nobody got killed." There was a moment of awkward silence.

"I almost did," Wario told them. "That host guy set up a game and was offering me a point or a key to get this harness off, and that game in the durian shop almost took my life away."

"Did you get the point?" Popo asked. But at eyeing the fat zero in the middle of Wario's harness, the answer was clear.

"What game?" asked DK.

"I had to open up fruits as the ceiling was collapsing on me, and I had to stick my hand into needles," Wario explained with a grunt. "I'll get back at that host one day. That bastard."

"Me too," Fox muttered.

"Count me in into your mutiny group," added DK.

"So the host is offering keys to remove these harnesses?" Pit asked. "We really need to find these games, no matter the risk. So that's what these small holes are for". They all saw that on each of their harnesses, right below the center of their harnesses, there were small-scaled holes. They knew they were key places.

"I think there's a motor boat over there in that garage," Pit said, pointing to a distance away. Sure enough, they could all make out the form of the motorboat.

"Noki Bay," DK reminded them.

"By the way, where the hell is Samus?" Fox suddenly said. He was right, and as they looked around, she was nowhere to be spotted among them.

"I guess she went on her own," said Jigglypuff, shrugging, "But I heard she was a fearsome fighter."

"Oh boy," sighed Dr. Mario as he shook his head, "I just knew somebody would leave us. First Ness, then Wario and Roy, although they're here right now, and then Samus."

In no longer than a minute, they arrived at the boat garage, which was halfway inside the building behind it. DK hopped first onto the stationery boat, and noticed the exact same cord he had been pulling on their previous boat trip. "Not again," he groaned.

"I hope we don't crash again," said Popo in a worried voice. "Then we'll be all mixed up like before."

"I have the map," said Pit. "Is everyone ready?"

"We're off!" Dr. Mario turned on the engine as DK pulled the cord, and to everyone's relief, the boat took off fine and smooth as the motor boat whipped across the sea. Popo looked back at Delfino Plaza, and saw police cars and sirens echo from the area of the boathouse. Some of the others turned to and looked at the scene in awe and regret, as the sirens made Popo's stomach twist. He cuddled into the corner of the boat.

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A boat approached the rocky border of Noki Bay, a mysterious, desolate location with many platforms and few village houses nestled in the back of the place. The rowboat stopped, and the passenger let go of his oar and set it against the corner of the boat. Suddenly, the boat started to break down and dissolve into the water in a quick and bizarre formation, as the person got off the boat as rapidly as he could, only to end up scratching himself against the surface of the rock. 

"Stupid mud boats," he sighed, getting up to his feet and looking behind him.

Noki Bay was a place which represented the underwater cliffs of Atlantis risen to plant its roots above the surface of the water, with a beautiful, colored bay being casted by shadows from the tall rocky structures. The insides of the mysterious rocks had been fulled with the treasures of the past, and the place hundreds of years later, were adapted by the innocent nokis, little creatures in large conch shells. Yet as Ness looked around, he saw no such people. In fact, he didn't know what a noki was. He had never heard of such a thing before in his sixteen year-old life.

Ness hopped onto a rock, then over water to another rock, then hopped to the rock land where a few of the village houses were nestled. He was anxious to see where the others players had ended up, and on his journey rowing to Noki Bay by the help of his vibration powers, he wondered all about the game he was in. He hated the host. He had the feeling of wrath and hatred for the person in the black cloak and smiley-face mask. Ness never forgot the powers rule the host had stated, but for some reason, the host could never detect his vibration advantage.

"Is anybody here?" Ness called out. Ness could see that the village houses were all empty in the inside, and saw a small house near the edge of the rocky water a hundred feet away from him. He knew that there was the next location.

After stepping his way to the small house with no doors, he looked at the sign displayed in front of it: _Boathouse rentals, Mr. Jimbo Nook the raccoon._

"This is it," Ness said out loud. He stepped up the stairs and into the roofed hut-like house, and saw a lectern, a speaker's podium, placed directly in the middle of the space. Ness looked at it and saw a typed piece of paper placed under the glass of the lecturn, and as he read it, he knew that this was part of the game.

**Chose (0). Hello player, you are almost there to your first clue, which is the first step to leading you to the finish. Do not hesitate to celebrate, as you did well so far. The clue is above in the giant, pink shell above you, and you have two ways to reach it. By the window are two arrows. Arrow one is pointing to option Pulleys and Levees. **

Ness looked out at the window, where two arrows were pointing, and saw that the first arrow was pointing to an assortment of obstacles along the below of the huge shell

**Arrow two is pointing to option Lift. Make your choice. Chose (0).**

Ness looked over the note once more and then got out of the hut, as he looked out at the two options. Who would go for the pulleys and levees? he ask himself. As he walked over to the lift, he felt that there was something hidden and sinister about it, a twist to taking it.

The lift was like an elevator, with no barriers to save anyone if they happened to tumble over, and in the center of the lift carriage was a pole with a control panel. It was attached to four sets of wires from above, and as Ness looked up at the blinding sun, he saw that the wires led all the way to the entrance for the shell, around an extensive hundred feet up. Ness shuddered, thinking of taking such an elevator ride so high. There was a pedestal besides the lift, and atop of the height-sized pedestal was a chest. Ness opened the lid of the chest and looked inside, to reveal a pile of ten to twenty cards. But as he opened the chest even more, he eyed a note attached on the inside of the lid.

T**hese are cards to use the Noki Sky Lift, built for the Skilling Game. Much quicker than the Pulleys and Levees obviously. Insert card into the elevator panel, then press red button on control panel to start, green to stop the carriage. Just be aware that the angry cards have a point: four of the fifteen cards will mess up the cables as you make your journey to the top. Hint: disconnect.**

Ness immediately closed the chest. As his friend Jeff had told him back in Earthboud, consequences are always worse than you think. He suddenly opened the chest again and went through the cards with his hands. Fifteen. Either the others took the other way, or were not yet here.

He walked over to the other side, to the start if the pulleys and levees. As he looked up, he stared at an obstacle course from hell. Cords, attachments, and levers were lined all against the side of the way, leading up to the pink giant shell at the top. Ness looked back at the elevator, the one way journey in a luxorious ride. He shook his mind off such a thing, remembering the elevator's hidden danger; having no barriers while riding a hundred feet up, while fearing the risk of the elevator breaking, was worse enough to make one feeling nauseous, while taking time to endure a slow journey to the top would always be the better choice of the two. Ness read the sign, which stuck out from below the rocks.

**Choosing to take the Vertical Journey means you are determined to become healthy and exercised , unlike being lazy by taking an elevator. Attach different parts to your harness, and pull your way from platform to platform. Your reward for being fit is that these cords and levers are one-hundred percent break-proof. Tip: don't look down. Good luck.**

He looked at two ends of a cord which led twenty feet to the top, hanging in front of him in utter confusion, then after taking a look at his body, he knew what he had to do. Ness attached one of the ends of the cord in front of him, which had a clip at the end of it, through a passageway which went from the left side of his harness device through the right side. He pulled on the other wire directly in front of him as he was pulled up from the ground. Ness pulled harder again, and was three feet above from the rocks below. He pulled again, then again, then again, as his body was being supported by the wire pulling him up to the first platform. He was already exhausted as he pulled himself up to twenty feet, and fell against a wooden platform at the top as he unhooked the wire. The entire wires unraveled itself as it was dropped below to the rocks.

Ness got up to his feet, panting in exhaustion. In front of him were two cords parallel to each vertically. There was a wire dangling from the platform above, and Ness grabbed it and hooked it into his harness. Then, he stepped onto the cord while grabbing the other cord above him with his two hands, as he traversed the way across the two wires, a twenty foot walk, his body shaking in all directions as he happened to looked down. If it weren't for the extra wire attached to him, he would have fainted from the grueling height he was at above the rocky shores, as he bravely continued on. Ness reached the other end of the platform in relief, as he made his way up a flight of carved wooden stairs, panting along the way in heavy fatigueness.

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He was able to pull himself to the end of the obstacle, as he unhooked a cord from his harness and sent it plummeting twenty-five feet below. 

"At," Ness gasped, in a voice which sounded it came from a person with heavy prostration, "The...the top." He was drenched in sweat, panting hardly as he lay down on his back on the wooden platform. His harness had another torture device added to it, heat, as he desperately tried to take it off, desperately trying to find a way to relax his body. He felt that his harness was going to kill him.

But as he simply sat down on the wooden platform at the top, gentle breezes were making their way through Ness' body. After a minute of satisfaction, he turned to look at a metal structure at the right of him where peculiar wind was coming from: an air conditioner. He finally got up to his feet and made his way over to a machine which looked exactly like an over-larged fishing reel, which had cords strung around and around it numerous times, and held tightly. They were the cords of the lift, and as Ness looked over the edge below, he saw the lift carriage, a hundred feet below to the ground.

He turned around and saw the shell in front of him, staring directly at him in an eerie fashion. He couldn't resist but admire the beauty of the giant shell with its glowing magenta color. Ness took a step towards the inside of the large shell.

A cackle pierced the air suddenly into a thousand, jolting waves. "Step in!"**

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****There will be a player demise in the next chapter _finally_, and I promise you, it will be a person you will miss! (maybe not). Hope you like the story so far.**


	7. Chapter 7: Collapasing Cables

**Enjoy! There is death.**

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**_Chapter 7: Collapsing Cables_**

Ness immediately gathered his thoughts at the sudden voice. He stepped cautiously into the darkness of the shell as quickly as he could, knowing that the next clue to to his dangerous game was inside the shell. He looked at a small person in a turban, and in front of the figure was a small table with a tablecloth draped over it, that one could think was once a table for a crystal ball. All around the table were candles, laid down in the form of a circle.

"I think you're the first, I mean, second, I mean a tiddly hiddly, hooh ha ha ha!" hooted the turbaned person, and at the tone of voice Ness could easily make out that it was a woman talking. Ness stepped towards the lady, entering the candle circle.

"I'm looking for a clue for the Skilling Game," Ness told her.

"Skilling Game, Skilling Game," the lady replied, picking up a book from the ground and rapidly flipping through it. "Nothing called the Skilling Game, darling." Ness looked at the title of the book; How To Build A Hydro Pipe To A Designated Place.

"Madam," Ness started.

"It is the Skilling Game USTS WIN!" she cackled, "Please repeat!"

"The Skilling...Game yooesties win," Ness repeated.

"Darling, come here with the basket of scrolls," the old lady called out to behind her. A few moments later, footsteps got closer to the two of them, as a young boo girl stepped out from behind the drapes, smiling and carrying a wooden basket full of numerous scrolls. She set it out on the small table as the lady smiled. Ness could not make out the face of the old lady, as the shadow cast by her large turban blocked her full facial features. As she skipped with the basket, she was repeating a type of chant over and over again.

"_Aranana Naralaran, Anarocky, Peeka-laran_," she sang, before stopping besides the table.

"Hey Senorita," the girl boo giggled, "I put on the substance just like you wanted me to." She bowed, as Ness saw that she was only nine to ten years old.

"Lahla, be a peachy and do the dishes on the table," the lady told her. The boo pouted in a playful way, then turned to look at Ness.

"I wouldn't go back behind the caves in Noki Bay," the boo told him, "It's _very _risky!" Ness looked back, baffled.

"Oh, and voices are stronger where there is cold air," the boo added.

"Hush, hush," the lady said in a voice of exhaustion, and the little boo smiled as she dashed back behind the drapes. The lady turned her full attention back at the confused Ness.

"Grab one," she commanded. "It's the clue." Ness reached over and took one of the scrolls, then suddenly jumped back and let go off the rolled paper. As Ness looked at the sticky substance dripping on his hands, the lady cackled.

"Hot, isn't it?" she said, grinning like a witch from a fairy tale. "Please exit out if you don't mind. Win this game, conquer over the others." Ness hurriedly ran towards the light of the shell with no hesitation, as behind him, the lady continued to ramble with her mysterious words. He was carrying the hot scroll in his shirt, waiting for it to cool down so that he would read the message later. As he suddenly exited from the large shell, he shielded his eyes at the sudden light exposure. His eyes settled, and right in front of him, he saw DK and Dr. Mario, standing out on the wooden platform.

"Ness!" exclaimed Dr. Mario. "Good to-a see you!"

"Where the hell have you been?" asked DK. Ness just stood where he was in confusion, as he saw something rise from behind them. It was the lift, all the way at the top, and aboard the car was Jigglypuff, grasping tightly to the metal pole. Dr. Mario approached her.

"Easy, easy," Dr. Mario told her. "Don't forget to take out the card." Jigglypuff turned to look at the control panel besides her in the lift, and retrieved a red card from the slit. He grabbed her hand as she carefully made her way onto the wooden platform the other three were on. As the lift started to descend at a faster speed towards the rocky grounds below, Ness spoke out.

"Did you all use the lift?" Ness asked them.

"I didn't want to," Jigglypuff replied, shaken up. "But we had to for the clue."

"Are there...others down there?" Ness asked again.

"We're sending the elevator back down so the others could come up too," DK told him. "Anything wrong with that?" He looked at Ness' panic-stricken face.

"No," he said out loud, and looked over the edge of the wooden platform. He could make out the group of others a hundred feet below, and saw that a figure, Wario, had already boarded the lift, doing somethign that Ness assumed was inserting the engine card into the structure.

"The lift will crash if that's a fault card," Ness said, turning to the others. The others looked at him, baffled.

"It would fall?" DK said in a voice of doubt. "And how would you know?"

"Just help me get his attention," Ness demanded. "WARIO! UP HERE!" Ness waved his hands over the edge the most he could. Dr. Mario yelled too, and waved his arms from the top.

"_WARIO!"_ DK holllered.

Wario, who was busy inserting his card into the slot of the control panel, was stopped as Popo tapped on his shoulder.

"Whadd'ya want?" he snapped. "You're not supposed to be on this lift right now, the host said one at a time!"

"But Mister Wario," Popo said, "I hear DK and some others from all the way up there. They're yelling not to use the lift."

"I hear them too," Pit added. "They are saying 'The lift would something, don't use'. Why so?" Wario stepped over to look up above, and saw the shapes of the four figures all the way at the top of the cliff, at such a distance away. He snorted at their warnings, not aware of the true message the players at the top was telling him.

"No way in hell am I using the pulleys and levees!" Wario growled. "I'm taking Mr. Express!"

"Idiot," Roy muttered.

"You lazy sloth," Fox said. "No wonder you're so fat."

"I really would listen to them---" Popo started.

"Get out!" Wario snapped with a grunt, and with a strong gesture he knocked Popo off the lift and scraped his small body on the rocky floor, causing him to recoil and crawl back in fear. Wario grinned as he pressed the red button, and the others looked as the lift r8se from the ground, being pulled by the wires that lead up to the large wheel at the top, where the four other players were standing in disbelief.

"I hope he chose a correct card," Ness said, giving up. "He won't listen to us at all."

"I'm pretty sure they heard us," Jigglypuff stated.

"That Wario would never sacrifice an elevator ticket," explained Dr. Mario.

The carriage proceeded to ascend, slowly and steadily like the other previous trips the other three had recently taken, as Wario clung onto the metal bar in slight nervousness as he looked down. He was nearly half-way up, and his knees were shaking with fright.

"I ain't scared of falling," he chuckled nervously to himself. The carriage shook.

DK was the first to hear the peculiar noise; a strong-willed snap. He turned to look at the machine of the lift, and as the others looked at what it was, they all saw to their horror that the cable was letting loose. The wires were unraveling around the fishing reel-like structure at immense speed, as DK leaped onto the cables with all his might.

Wario let out a gasp as the carriage shook once, then again, as the lift suddenly tilted all to one side in an unexpected twist. Wario cried out as the carriage was suddenly turned to a thirty degree angle, as he panickedly grabbed onto the metal bar besides him in terror before he could plummet to his death. The cable wire snapped again, as Wario grabbed onto the bar for dear life, his hat falling down into the rocks seventy feet below.

"Oh my god!" screamed Jigglypuff, "The lift! It's breaking!"

"Everyone, help me hold the wires!" DK yelled. Dr. Mario and Ness went up to the lift cables and wrapped their arms as hard as they could around the wires, as DK held the wires as tight as he could. The wires were slipping from their grasps inch by inch.

"Help me!" shouted Wario, tightening his grip around the metal bar. He was hanging for his life, knowing that any second the lift could snap off. He prayed silently to himself as he hung onto the tilted carriage, and felt the carriage drop a foot down. Wario let out a yell as he used all his muscle to hold on.

"Fuck!" shouted DK. "The cords are sliding away!" Jigglypuff backed away from the scene in dread and terror, as the people below on the ground watched in panic at the horrific scene above them. Dr. Mario fell back in pain, his hands covered in blisters, and as DK used his last strenght of keeping the wires from unraveling, he weakened gradually as the wires started to fall away. Ness fell back in pain as DK looked over the edge in shock.

"_No!" _DK yelled, getting back to his feet as he tried to gather back the unraveling wires. But it was too late, as Wario felt his whole body dropping down along with the bar he was desperately grabbing onto with his sweaty hands, screaming for help. As the other four below ran for their lives in panic, the lift crashed against the pointy rocks, splattering metal, wood, rock, and gore all over in every direction possible. The sound of the shattering elevator hitting against the ground from seventy feet up was excruciating for the people below, and as Popo looked behind him, he started to cry in shock.

Pit and Roy looked back at a destroyed elevator splattered on the ground, as the last of the cables from above finally reached the ground. Within the horrific debris was the body of Wario, partially crushed under a large piece of the lift with his blood sploshed all around the rocky area.

As Pit looked in horror, the piece of the lift had bisected the beefy man in half. Just when he was about to turn away in revulsion, the metal pole Wario was grabbing onto earlier, which was positioned vertically leaning against a piece of the broken lift, fell sideways and smashed into Wario's already disfigured face. Popo shrieked in horror.

"AHHHHH!" he cried, running away as far as he could from the scene. Roy was disgusted as he stepped away from the debris, looking at the body of the person who was fully living a minute ago. He was at the urge of vomiting.

"Shit shit shit shit," DK panicked, holding his head with his arms and plodding all over the place. "Wario just got killed." The others exchanged glances of fear and terror.

"We tried our best," Jigglypuff said.

"_We?_" DK said back. "More like, 'DK, Ness, and Dr. Mario while little balloon head turned away from the scene, whining and too scared help at all'."

"Hey!" she yelled. "Who here is going to a college? To win this game? I'm better than all of you."

"Yeah," DK muttered, "Better at screwing up the game."

"Stop," sighed Dr. Mario. "We need to continue on, no matter what happens. Ness, do you have the clue?"

"Right---" started Ness, but then remembered to where he had placed his scroll while the lift commotion was occuring. But as he looked, it was no longer on the edge of the wooden platform the four of them were standing on.

"It fell off," Ness realized. He looked over the edge of the platform, and could make out the figure of Fox, a hundred feet below and directly under where he was standing. He then remembered the words of the boo, back in the shell.

_Oh, and voice are stronger when there is cold air_

"The air conditioner," he said, and turned to look at the metal structure. As he got his face next to it, he tried yelling into the air vents, hoping that it would somehow reach the players below.

"What are you doing?" Dr. Mario asked, as the others walked up to him.

"Break this open," Ness told them. "There's something inside there."

"No sweat," DK commented, then with a mighty kick, he smashed open the metal air conditioner with a mighty kick, breaking it into pieces. An object rolled to Ness' feet, and as he picked it up, he knew it was a megaphone.

"This is it," Ness said, switching the megaphone on and facing down over the platform.

"HELLO PEOPLE DOWN THERE!" Ness shouted into the object, "ARE YOU ALL OKAY?"

"NO!" was the reply, and the others knew that the people, too, below had their own megaphone. It was the voice of Pit.

"IS THAT YOU NESS?" he shouted back.

"YEAH! WE HAVE DK, DR. MARIO, AND JIGGLYPUFF! WHO DO YOU HAVE?"

"ME, ROY, FOX, AND PO...POPO? WHERE IS HE?!"

"I HAVE YOUR CLUE!" shouted the voice of Fox. They exchanged glances of confusion, as Fox talked again.

"I THINK ONE OF YOU DROPPED IT FROM ABOVE, AND AS YOU WERE PAYING ATTENTION TO THAT LAZY DEAD GUY, I GOT IT!"

"ASSHOLE!" yelled DK, grabbing the megaphone into his own hands. "SON OF A BITCH!"

"I AM LEAVING NOW!" Fox darted away from the others besides him, and before they could catch up to him, he headed his way towards one of the two motor boats around the shell. DK immediately entered the shell, and right after him, Jigglypuff entered.

"Gimme gimme!" DK demanded, taking the clue into his hands, then immeditely dropped it on the floor at the hot substance. The old lady cackled, as Jigglypuff rolled it into her shirt and headed out of the darkness, but not before DK exited.

"DK!" said Dr. Mario. "What does the clue say?"

Before they could stop him, he jumped over the edge of the wooden platform in the opposite direction of the destroyed lift, a hundred feet into the water. Ness and Dr. Mario were astonished as they saw his small figure plummet into the water below, creating a large impact in the water that even they were able to see.

"Oh my...god," was all Ness could manage to let out. "Did he survive that?"

"Chance are, yes," Dr. Mario told him.

"I got the clue!" Jigglypuff stated, getting out of the shell. "How do we get down?" They all looked at a set of cables by the edge of the platform, that only Ness was able to spot before.

"Hook your harness into the wire," explained Ness, "Then slide down at a fast speed and reach the ground safely."

"Slide down a hundred feet?" Jigglypuff argued in worry. "And the cables would not snap like the cables of the lift did?"

"Just-a go!" said Dr. Mario. Jigglypuff relunctantly hooked four clips into her harness as she rapidly descended, as she grabbed into the cable in fear. Ness went right after her, as Dr. Mario did the same right after Ness. The three of them were descending down the cable wire, hoping that the wires would not break, snap, or become destroyed. Jigglypuff was relieved as she touched the rocky ground. Safe to be down again. But she suddenly gasped in horror as she saw the remains of the lift and Wario, only a few feet besides her as she was frozen with revulsion.

"Give me the clue!" shouted Roy, punching Jigglypuff in the face as she let go off the scroll in surprise. Ness ran after the scroll, and so did Roy, as they both tackled for the crucial scroll. Jigglypuff got up, as she saw that Fox was leaving away in one of the motor boats.

"Let's go," she said to Ness, as he immediately understood what she was saying. Transportation was far more important that knowing their next location.

Ness let go off the scroll as Roy fell back, thinking he had won the fight. But as he saw the two of them run towards the motor boat, he immediately darted after them. Pit did the same, and so did Dr. Mario. Jigglypuff hopped across the sharp rocks and onto the stationery motor boat first, trying her best to start the engine as fast as possible. Another person immediately boarded the boat as well, Pit, and without hesitating, pulled the rubber cord as the engine sounded

"Wait!" said Ness, jumping into the boat as well. Roy attempted to get on, but Ness pushed him back relunctantly back into the rocks. He would not help them reach the end.

"Dr. Mario!" shouted Jigglypuff. Dr. Mario hopped across the rocks and was about to step onto the boat, but just then, the engine of the small boat started. Ness reached over and desperately tried to grab his hands, but it was too late, as the doctor fell fowards into nothing but water.

"Do not go back into the caves!" Ness yelled with all his might. He was not sure if Dr. Mario had been able to hear his meaage from the distance their boat was away at.

"No, turn back!" said Jigglypuff. "We still need Dr. Mario!"

"Too late," Pit stated in regret. "We can't go back now. Every second is a second towards our death."

Jigglypuff slumped back in disappointment and fear. All of the players were seperaterated into different groups, seperated to explore the deadly aspects of the Skilling Game. But only one person was left in his own class, greatly diverse from the others. Wario.

* * *

**What will now happen to the players from now on? How much danger lies ahead of the victims? What DOES the name of the game stand for?**

**Oh, and for those who spotted some clues on stuff, congrats at having big eyes ((o).(o)) If you ever find a big clue, do not spoil it for others...please, would like review on how you like the story!**


	8. Chapter 8: The Next Location

**Sorry there was no update for a while, but I had China to visit and fun to enjoy. Eight, my lucky number!**

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_**Chapter 8: The Next Location**_

"Can you imagine that?" Jigglypuff asked the other two passengers on the motor boat, shuddering. "That image of the lift collapsing with Wario on it would scar me forever. I hate playing this game."

"We know how you feel," Ness replied, who was simply sitting down on his seat as he watched the waves splash into the air, then flop back down into the ocean. "I'm trying to think of every possible way that we could remove these harnesses and get out of here."

"We've been driving on this boat for almost an hour," Pit stated with a hint of grumbling in his voice. "And now what? What happened to the other people now?"

"It's 1:30 P.M," said Ness.

"What?!" exclaimed Pit. "Already that time? And we don't know how many locations we have to get to before we reach the finish."

"Well, we could sit here and drive into the nowhere," Ness replied, "Or guess where we are to head off next."

"I _know_ where to head of next," Jigglypuff suddenly said, and the others looked at her in confusion.

"No you don't," Pit said back.

"Just because I don't reveal the clue first thing possible doesn't mean that I'm bluffing," Jigglypuff told him.

"Then hell with it Jigglypuff, why not reveal it now and save our lives?" Pit demanded.

"You're just jealous that you can't use your wings," Jigglypuff muttered under her breath. Pit glared at her angrily, but he knew that she was actually correct in a certain way.

"Okay, okay," Ness finally spoke out, "Jigglypuff, tell me what the clue said so we could head off there."

"I remember it exactly," she said, in an almost boastful manner. "_When you're in on it, or have twin boys, then you are sure you are near the next location, the square._" The two others listened to her words carefully, and after ten seconds of analyzing, nothing struck to them.

"Any ideas yourself?" Ness asked her.

"Nope," said Jigglypuff. "I probably don't know this place we have to go to. But it has something to with a square, that's what I know. The thing with being in on it or having twins are hints to where this is near."

"Okay, enough driving for now," said Pit, as he pulled the rubber cord again and switched off the engine of the boat. The motor boat immediately stopped moving as all three of the players suddenly got up from the places they had been sitting.

"Then those three places they are talking about must be cities somewhere," Pit said. "What place looks like a square?"

"A cube city?" Ness thought out loud. "Maybe, a place called Square Town. I really don't know."

"If you have twin boys..." Jigglypuff said.

"That's two kids," Pit piped up.

"Obviously," said Jigglypuff, "But maybe that does have to do with something. Maybe two means second place? Do we have to visit all three places to solve something?"

"The thing with boys have to do with it," Ness realized, "The host would have said the word children instead if that wasn't important. Right?"

"True," Jigglypuff said, nodding. She sat back down into the side of the boat, baffled. "Very difficult," she sighed.

"When you're in on it. When you're on in what?" Pit repeated, confused as well. "When you're in on it...in on it..."

"In on it!" Ness suddenly exclaimed, getting up to his feet suddenly as the boat swayed. Pit grabbed onto the edge of the boat to keep his balance.

"You understand what it's saying?" Jigglypuff asked him, getting back up.

"In on it!" repeated Ness.

"Hey, I said that!" Pit argued.

"It's a play of pronunciation," explained Ness. "In Onett."

"And...what is this 'Onett' place?" Pit questioned.

"It's that stage in the Smash Mansion," Jigglypuff suddenly recalled. "Same and musical, use simple logic."

"The heck does that mean?" Pit wondered in confusion.

"Onett is a city in my homeland Eagleland," said Ness. "I haven't been there for so long, I hardly remember how it last looked."

"Then, two sons?" Pit asked. "Does that happen to be another city?"

"Twoson," Ness suddenly said again. "Onett and Twoson are cities in the place of Eagleland. No doubt that those are part of the clue."

"And," asked Pit, "A square would be related to..."

"Fourside!" Ness and Jigglypuff both exclaimed. Their faces were triumphant, and they both had the look of relief on their faces.

"Oh god," Pit mumbled. "I really should have been in Super Smash Brothers Melee to know this stuff." He went back up to the engine of the motor boat and immediately started it up again, as the waves suddenly picked up once again.

"But how do we get to Fourside?" Jigglypuff wondered, "And find this next clue?"

"I know," said Ness, "It was something we learned in training classes how to know where to find Eagleland. At 2:00 in the afternoon, if you look at the sun's direction and turn it a number of degrees, then you would be facing the location of where you want to be designated." He picked up a plank from the floor of the boat and pointed it out at the sun in the sky, partially setted behind the sea horizon.

"Fourside is the fourth city," he explained, "So fourty degree I would turn to the right. That's where Fourside should be." He was pointing in a direction slightly off to the right of the sun.

"Yeah," said Pit, stopping the boat once more, "But just that it's not yet 2:00. It's 1:42 P.M."

"No pain in waiting," Jigglypuff told them. "We could spare some time." The others agreed in silence, as their stationary boat bobbed up and down on the splashing water, and as a warm breeze swept across the three players like a ripple of death, they thought of things they had never thought of before

Jigglypuff thought about her life. Such a worthy, educated life, she thought, wasted to pieces of flesh. She shuddered at the thought of seeing her body, exploding parts of blood and non-living pieces of what used to be her, flying everywhere and only leaving her soul behind, if there was any after death. No use for her brain. Her attractiveness. No battles to win. No moves to learn. No pride to show.

Ness was not thinking about himself, but about the fateful situation Dr. Mario and Roy would wait to come. The two stranded players left on Noki Bay would have such little chance to be able to reach the end of the game; to feel the wave of relief as they take off their devices. Ness tried to think as optimisticly as he could, hoping that there was somehow a spare motor boat hidden inside the caves of the bay, or a shortcut to the finish. He looked at Pit in anger, the one who had left them behind with no hesiation.

Pit was thinking about something else, somehing the other two didn't take notice off at all.

"Shhh..." he started, looking around the base of the small motor boat. The others turned to look at him with perplexed expressions.

"You here that?" he asked again.

"What is it?" Jigglypuff questioned, dazed.

"Murmurs, whispers," Pit finished. "Coming from somewhere." Ness and Jigglypuff snapped back to their reality and heard what Pit had been talking about. Tiny whispers were heard from somewhere near the vehicle.

"Vibrations inside the boat," Ness whispered to them. "There are people inside!"

"Shush!" hissed Jigglypuff, and at that very second, the murmuring stopped. The three players looked over the edge of their boat in unison.

"Let's go get them," Pit declared. "There's probably a hidden compartment below us."

"Well," Jigglypuff said stoutly. "I can't swim, so I can't do it."

"I'll do it," said Ness. "I'll go right now and open it up."

"Don't hesitate," Pit told him. Ness nodded slowly and sat across the edge of the boat as he lowered one of his shoes into the water. He took one glance at Pit and Jigglypuff before lowering his body into the water, fully submerged. He immediately came back up, coughing.

"Ack!" he cried. "Too damn cold."

"Come on Ness," Jigglypuff encouraged. "We know someone is down there." Ness nodded again and went down for a second time, and this time, the two on board knew he was attempting to open up the compartment below them. They waited anxiously as he again appeared back at the surface once again.

"Got it?" asked Jigglypuff doubtfully.

"There's a lock," Ness reported. "I can't open it."

"Try this," Pit said, pulling an object out from his back pocket and and offereing it to Ness. It was a metal arrow, about a foot long, as skinny as a pencil, and sharper than a knife. Ness took it and lowered himself into the water for his third try.

He could see clearly under water, despite the freezing temperature of the sea water which created an even harzardous task for Ness. Using the metal arrow, he slid the arrow through a small compartment where a lock was placed, and he pushed hardest against the metal.

What he didn't notice earlier was the spinning blades by his foot, maintaning control to sustain the boat stationary. His shoes were proceeding his way to the blades as he attempted to loosen the lock. After finding no success, he attempted to pull the arrow out again, floating his body closer to the dangerous object behind the boat, until his feet were merely being licked sharply by the deadly rotation.

After sticking the arrow back in again, the locked slid out, opening the secret lid cover as he felt someone grab his hand.

"Ness?" Jigglypuff asked in worry. It had been over thiry seconds, and there was no sign of the swimmer. Suddenly, a huge splash emerged to the surface, as Ness came up carrying two worn out figures from the bottom.

"Samus? Popo?" Pit asked in amazement. They helped carry the three players onto the motor boat, as to their surprise, all three of them were rather fine and well.

Samus explained her story immediately. She couldn't resist taking a shortcut to Noki Bay and succeed against the others. She received her clue, just when she was aware of a boat approaching from the shore, forcing her to hide behind a rock at the bottom of the bay. As she began to witness Wario slipping from the collapsing elevator, she found a compartment under one of the two motor boats, where Popo had decided to hide as well. The two of them had stayed inside the boat, feeling wet in the humid moisture until Ness has came to remove the unopenable lid.

"We got the clue," Popo managed to say as he got up from the boat floor. He was holding a scroll in his hand.

"We got that," Pit told him.

"But not that," Ness noticed, looking at what Popo was holding in his other hand. It was a small metal object, with a speaker and two buttons built into it, green and red. Popo gave it to him as Ness looked at it in curiosity.

"Where did you find this?"

"It was in the scroll," Samus told him. "Play it." Ness put his finger over the green switch and pressed down:

**_"Hurry up...hurry up,"_** the voice spoke out, in a voice that could not be recognized at all. **_"I will beat you all, and it won't matter then."_** After the message, the sound of immense proppeling was heard for a short moment.

Jigglypuff's mind perked up. "That's the sound of... of a...helicopter."

* * *

The sun had already vanished behind the gigantic cliffs, which blocked a section of the sea from the remaining players staring at it. The waves noticeably got smaller as the time passed, and as the doctor looked at the 5:00 P.M. displayed on the face of his watch, the swordsman was thrashing about. 

"You fucking idiot! I'll fucking kill you!" Roy picked up an overlarged stone from the shore and threw against the ocean, a far distance from where he was. Dr. Mario simply sat down on one of the rocks and sighed, then took out something from his coat and placed it besides him. Roy turned around in exhaustion, then collapsed onto his knees in the feeling of hopelessness.

"You ain't rock throwing, are you kiddo??" Dr. Mario asked out loud, wiping his mouth with his sleeve as if he had just eaten something. He took his first sip from a bottle of vodka he had found in the back of the boathouse, only taking in less then a teaspoon as though he was washing something down. Roy looked at him in disgust.

"You're the useless one," he muttered in anger. "I'll get everything Edguardo. Just watch me. I'll find a shortcut to the end of this race, same and musical, using simple old fuckin' knowledge."

"Technically impossible, bitch," Dr. Mario replied, and Roy immediately noticed that something was wrong about doctor, from being a leader with a mind to a person full of drunk and nonsense. But Roy ignored the unusual and walked the opposite direction away from him, angry and full of exhuast. He looked back down at his feet when he realized he had stepped on something hard and metal. He was standing in the middle of the lift wreck, on the metal bar which had collided in with Wario's face.

He ran across the wreck in fear and repulsion, looking back at the bloody footprints his shoes were making on the rocks. He grabbed onto his harness, trying to pull it away from his body with futile effort, before leaning against a side of the cliff.

Roy suddenly turned around as he noticed he was somewhere odd and peculiar. He was at the entrance of a passageway in the cliff, and as he ventured his way with courage through the slimy darkness, he reached something wooden at the end. As he placed his other hand against the door in confusion, he felt something metal and round protruding from wall surface,

Roy could see the littlest crack of light coming out from in front of his feet. "It's...it's a door."


	9. Chapter 9: Take, Cut, Chance

**Sorry for no update. Test, lab report, working on a new story that involves, guess if you know my type of writing...**

**...Got it yet?...**

**Correct! Killing and terror. Enjoy this chapter.**_**

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_**Chapter 9: Take, Cut, Chance**_

Roy took the metal knob into both of his hands and twisted, and to no surprise, the wooden door opened with obvious ease. He looked back at where he had just come from before, seeing the glint of setting light a number of feet away within the cave passage. Roy was surprised to find how far he had travelled into the cliff face, and entered through the door slowly without considering to turn back at all, to the safe side of the game.

What Roy saw next was confusing. The large cave room was one-hundred fifty feet long down to the end, and around thirty feet wide. There was no ceiling covering the area, as Roy looked up at the gloomy light of the sky which shone across the rocky ground. But at the end of the long room was a vehicle placed on a platform, with something besides it he couldn't make out. It was a helicopter.

There was also another addition to the long cave. A large pit, which stretched from a few feet in front of Roy to where the helicopter was laying, was seperating the player and the vehicle from reaching each other. He looked at the sides of him at odd descriptions carved into the wall, despicting swirls, familar shapes, and sea designs he recognized immediately; seaweed, dolphins, shells. Roy took his first step towards the pit, when he jumped in surprise and looked behind him at the door, closed shut. His harness had suddenly began speaking.

**"Do not take a step Roy. This is the host."** Roy looked down at the device around his body, nervous and baffled at what lay ahead of him at all. He didn't dare to move.

**"You have stumbled across one of my little games while attempting to win the Skilling Game. At the end of the large cavern you are presently in is a large device, a helicopter which you would find worthy as you go on. It will guide you immediately to the next location, a step closer to completing the race. There is also a glass box at the end. You will only achieve one of the items in the two compartments. One is a key to your freedom, a key to unlock the harness you are wearing and exit this game, clean. But if you determined to win and go on, the other object is a point card, a valuable item in the Skilling Game.**

Roy immediately felt a sense of hope in his body, shaking nervously as the harness spoke

**"But if you determined to win and go on, the other object is a point card, a valuable item in the Skilling Game. Yet these rewards are not simple to achieve. I call this trap..."**

Before the host was able to finish his sentence, Roy's curiosity of frustration and fear broke ahead, as he walked fowards and peered at what lay at the bottom of the long, deadly pit.

**"...one of the most enduring and determined. The Razor Walk."** Roy looked down at the bottom of the pit in dreadful terror. Hundreds, thousands, millions of square razor blades were piled on top of each other and lead its way over a hundred feet to the end of the cave room, with nothing along the torturous path to support oneself in traveling across. He didn't move at all; Roy was too stunned at the horrific sight.

**"Will this be too much for a helicopter and a gift? Will hiding in your shell be the only choice you have? Think about your circumstances, Roy. Make your choice."** The message ended.

Roy immediately looked behind him at the wooden door, shut locked as he tried to find any way to open it up. He turned at the pit in front of him.

"No way," he gasped in horror. "No way am I going past there." As he looked at the helicopter a distance away in fear, he felt something snap across his feet in a quick flash. A wire had been attached horizontally from the shell design on the left wall to a metal mechanism sticking out from the wall to the right of him, and Roy had activated it. On the floor, strung on the disattached wire and attached securely, was a small, cube object that Roy was quick to spot. He picked it up slowly and stared at it. It was a timer.

146, 145, 144...

Roy peered back over the edge of the pit. A ladder would bring him down to complete the challenge, into the pit of razors. He saw the distance of travelling he had to do, then looked at the timer in panic. Was it worth it?

He imagined himself taking off his harness, flying the helicopter over the bay and free from the game. The picture of no money reward entered his mind.

Trembling slowly, he put his feet on the rungs of the ladder and made his way down as quick as possible, until Roy was nearly level with the millions of razors that lay in front of him. He looked back at the cube timer.

130, 129, 128...

He hurriedly snapped the cape off from his back and tied it around his two hands the best he could. As he attempted to take his first step into the blades, he thought his situation over. Razor blades in his body, bleeding to death, failure...all the ideas came into his mind. His grip on the ladder behind him was lost, and he fell fowards.

The razors sunk into his legs, tearing holes through his pants and causing Roy to let out a yell of pain. He quickly stepped up from the pit, to find to his relief that the blades of death held his weight up, and he did not sink into the objects as if they were sand. Nearly five razors had cut along into Roy's two legs, as he painfully started to pull one out in hurry, then screamed in agony.

122, 121, 120...

"Two minutes," he gasped, as he took another step across the razors, his shoes sinking less than an inch down. He took another step, then another, then another, eyeing the razors along his path in terror, until he shouted once again in pain. A razor had found its way into Roy's boots, severing one of his toes off in the horrific process. Roy took a few more steps and slowly put himself down, on his two feet as he gasped in pain. His shoes were soaked with blood, as he moved a few steps fowards, closer to the finish.

"My...feet, oww!" he managed to exclaim in breaths.

98, 97, 96...

Roy was sinking as he rapidly trudged his way through the razors. His ankles were begininng to disappear within the blades, stinging his feet as he continued his way on. Razor blades were hitting into Roy by the second, screaming and yelling out in bloody stabs as he went. He was more than halfway through already. His feet were falling through the blades.

65, 64, 63...

His arms had blades sticking out of them, leaving a trail of blood as he painfully trudged more across the pit. His feet were being torn with the numerous razors severing his limbs, as Roy cried out in horror and excruciating pain as he travelled across. After another ten feet of torture and blood, his feet were already dead, as he lowered his cape-wrapped hands into the pit.

50, 49, 48, 47..

With nearly no life left in him, he attempted to crawl his way through the pit, crying out in torture and pain as the blades sunk into his knees. He started yelling and screaming as he was struck with a sense of strength, as he powered his way five feet. Putting his knees fully into the razors, he gathered his strength to look up ahead. The end of the pit, the exit, was just a few feet away.

35, 34, 33...

He mustered up a sense of strength, bleeding heaviy from the numerous cuts in his dying body. He saw the end of the pit coming closer into view, as he felt himself starting to sink down. The razors were more spreaded out towards the end, as Roy fell through the deadly blades like ocean water, with a stunned yell.

19, 18, 17..

He screamed out as cuts entered him, as his entire left foot had numerous blades tear through his ankle, spreading blood among the stinging metal. His chest was struck with hundreds of razors. Roy yelled again, tears of suffering and pain streaming down his face as he felt something metal above him.

13, 12, 11...

He unwrapped the cape from his hands and grabbed it, pulling himself out and onto the ladder. His body was soaked with blood as he wrapped his body between two rungs, screaming in pain and success as he looks back at the blood-covered timer in his hands.

4...3...2...

"No...NOO!!"

1...BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP! BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP! A sound of trudging metal was heard from behind Roy, and he turned his head and looked at the back of the pit in bluriness. He was beginning to weaken.

Roy gasped in terror. All the way from the start, a metal lid was making its way across the pit in a slow manner, proceeding closer to its goal of covering the Razor Walk forever in a loud, deafening screech. Roy looked up. The edge of the pit was a mere ten feet above him.

"Help...me!" he managed to breathe out in exceeding pain. With no feet, he managed to pull himself up to the next rung, only to discover the torturous strength needed to do such a task. The metal lid had already travelled it's half length across.

Roy gasped for breath as he looked up at the open sky of the ceiling. He needed to make it, as he panickedly pulled himself higher on the metal ladder. The lid was proceeding his way.

He pulled himself higher, merely five feet away from the edge of the pit as he had soaked the metal ladder in a new coat of repulsive blood. Razors in his body sunk in more, bleeding heavily. He shouted as he strengthened another step up, then looked behind him. Nearly the entire pit was dark, covered ominously by the shadow created by the moving lid. Roy gasped in dread and fear as he noticed how near the lid was to him.

Panicked, he pulled himself up again, screaming in terror as the lid was closing up the pit. Only a speck of light was left open, where Roy was directly under. He looked up at the light of the sky above him, then reached his hand over the edge of the pit. A beeping sound was heard.

"NO! NOOOO!" Roy screamed in terror.

The lid closed up on Roy's fingers, cutting them from the rest of his blood-cutted hand as he fell backwards in shock and fright. He fell in complete darkness, ten feet back into the razor pit. Not a crack of light was seen in the dark pit.

Roy's back was pierced deadly and deeply by the tens of razor blades below, as he let out a cough of blood before his death. He was trapped in a tomb.

"Congratualtions Roy. By reaching the end of the Razor Walk you have received a free point of endurance. Now choose your choice next to the helicopter, and---" There was a stop in the message, as the host had noticed that his message was incorrect. The player had only succeeded halfway.

Roy's harness had a two.

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The doctor put his glass bottle of anti-depressants back into his coat pocket as he opened the door. He stumbled, then shook his head at what lay ahead of him.  
It was a large room of over a hundred feet, and a large, metal flooring seperated Dr. Mario from the other end of the room, where an object was stationary and still. The cave-like room had no ceiling, exposing the darkening sky across the floor. 

Dr. Mario stumbled into the right side of the wall, into the overlarged carved and painted shell design. His elbow pushed the design farther into the wall as he sunk in surprise. The shell was a button.

Dr. Mario dropped his vodka bottle onto the floor and made his way across the metal, making clankings in his footsteps as he walked along. After plodding his way across in a slow and immature gait, he reached the helicopter, polished and new, set for the game.

"Hello Dr. Mario. Congratulations for being wise. Now choose your choice next to the helicopter, and receive your two rewards. Are you willing to continue on, or be freed from such a chance of money? Make your choice."

"No shit!" Dr. Mario yelled. He walked with difficulty to the glass box and saw two buttons on a small pedestal to the front of it. On the left side of the box, a card with a key displayed on it. On the right, a card with a 1.

The brain-dead player pressed a button with no hesitation, and the card was unhooked and dropped down. Dr. Mario picked it up, just when the glass box suddenly shifted. He saw it sink into the ground, slowly and succesfully, into a compartment in the floor of the cave. At the second it disappeared, the square opening was covered, as if the glass container had never existed. The pedestal stayed however.

Dr. Mario took the card into his hands, without realizing, passed it in front of his body. The zero on his displayer changed into one. He stepped upon the stair to the complex vehicle and sat on the seat.

"Hello player," the speaker on the helicopter spoke out in a polite, female tone. "Thank you for using the Sumast Stratosphere Helicopter Vehicle. You will be guided immediately to the next location of the Skilling Game U.S.T.S. WIN. Please follow the directions. Make sure you have everything with you before taking off." Dr. Mario smiled as he took another pill of medicine from his coat pocket, then pushed it down his throat in a forcing action of body abusing.

He sat back as the engine started.

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**What a horrible fate for Roy. Gives me the shudders just thinking about it...one less person at least.**

**How are the group of players travelling to Fourside doing? Where is Fox presently? What has become of DK? **

**Trying to break a review record! Anyway, updating sap.**

**P.S. Chapter is exactly 2500 words.  
**


	10. Chapter 10: The Game's Rules

**Sorry about the rather long update. By the way, please don't give anything away in reviews from now on, for example, if there so happens to be a clue that foreshadows something, yeah, just don't...like...reveal it. Not that there are any. Seriously, why would there be hints in this story at all? I would never do that. Please enjoy!  
**

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_**Chapter 10: The Game's Secrets  
**_

The boat finally stopped at the edge of a grassy terrain. The driver saw with his own eyes the gleaming colors of the city far away, which lit up the sky in a fashion that made it look daytime. But time was running short on the player, and the clock on his wrist suddenly struck the number seven with its short, stubby hand.

Fox heavily plodded off from the motor boat and stood silently on the grass. The miniature forest of immature trees was roughly a thousand feet away, and a pond was separating Fox and the town from reach other. Of course he could have just gone ahead, yet he didn't; he was tired and stressed out.

He thought about Samus. The first time he had met her was on the second day at the Smash Mansion. Her eyes was what struck out to him second. What struck out to him first about her physical appearance was what Fox so obsessed with. Everyone called Fox a creature with a twisted mind, a person who could never nail things correctly, a pervert, by Falco, Mario, even Pichu. He smiled when his distasteful thinking started to begin.

"Surprise, asshole!"

A large and bulky figure suddenly struck at Fox from behind so suddenly than he stumbled foward in an attempt to keep his balance. Fox struggled to move away, but the figure was too large. Before he could protest, the large hand grabbed his airs on the back of his head and smashed it into the wet grassy ground, leaving a wet, large splotch of blood positioned under Fox's face.

"That's what you get when you try to run away," the figure panted, and revealed himself to be no other than DK. Fox gasped as he managed to turn his head around, then with his hand, jammed into the side of DK as hard as he could. He rolled off of Fox as he stood up, but not before Fox did. Fox thrusted his elbow directly into DK's torso, hearing the sound of a sickening crack at the impact, causing DK to step back in pain and fall back to the floor.

"You bastard!" DK grunted, clutching his stomach in excruciating pain. As Fox took a step closer to his pained fighter, DK pushed both of his legs out in a sudden swift, causing Fox's feet to slide back and fall back against the dirt, his head hitting a jutting piece of rock emitting from the grass. It was all the effort needed to defeat his opponent, as Fox let out a groan of injury.

"You had enough?" DK said, getting up to his feet and stepping above Fox. The stunned and injured animal let out another grunt of pain and discomfort, as DK took a rope out from his pocket. Fox did nothing to stop DK as he forcefully tied together both of his arms, then picked him up from the ground. Fox suddenly snapped back to full consciousness.

"Let me go, you filthy ape!" he yelled, struggling in the large arms of the primate.

DK sighed with a grin and dropped Fox down, as Fox winced in pain when he hit the ground for the third time. He let out a yell of curses before DK picked him up again.

"I'm...I was using the boat," Fox explained in a shaken up voice of pain and fright. "It's, it's over---"

"I know where that boat is," DK snapped in a rough voice. "Why shouldn't I? I was hiding inside it for quite a while."

Fox turned his faced-down head to look up at him. "You what?!" After taking a few heavy steps towards the vehicle, DK silenced him by throwing him into the small motor boat; Fox's knees hitting into the metal edge of the boat and covering a section of it in blood, resulting in another pained scream from the helpless person.

"Untie my hands, fucker!" Fox yelled, thrusting his feet and head into the air. "Stop it, stop it!" As he looked up helplessly, DK was holding a knife in his left hand, with a grin of satisfaction on his face that made Fox shut up instantly.

"You, and I, have unfinished business, so you close your trap for now," DK ordered him. "We're going to the next place." He took a glance at the name of the miniature motor boat: **Speedy Power Gun.**

"Now, I can't get there if I don't know where it is," DK said.

"That city over there," Fox muttered reluctantly. He was full of humiliation and wrath at the same time, struggling helplessly on the dirtied floor of the boat. DK pulled the engine board with a flick of his hand.

"Damn, tight harness," DK said, as he tried to shift the small device around him into order to stop a section of it from pushing into his appendix area.

"I thought you were DEAD!" Fox shouted suddenly, grabbing at DK's foot effortlessly. The ape didn't reply, but only looked at scribbling on the side of the boat, small scratch-marks which seemed to form out letters. As he peered in closer to look at it, he realized that someone had been writing a word over and over again:

_Skilling Game USTS WIN._

* * *

"This is the place," Ness explained. The group of five had already docked their boat ten minutes ago on the Deputy Shorecoast, without permission or consent from anyone around the city. The place was filled with lights, but the city was deserted to a decreased population, a fact which shocked Ness and hurt him to his heart, knowing that his most favored town was no longer a thriving place of city. It was spooky, deserted, and bizarre. 

"Are you sure this is the right place?" Samus asked in curiosity.

"It's so empty," Pit commented. "There are buildings everywhere, with lights, but there are no cars. We've passed by only a couple of people now. Probably less than twenty people we've seen walking by us."

"All least we saw some people, right?" Popo said. "It isn't completely deserted yet."

"Yet?" Ness repeated in question form.

"This is now a separate island, right?" Jigglypuff said. "If rate times the speed of evacuation is manipulated to the power of years past, plus the population, then this town may have led to a quick decrease of people in such a sudden time." She looked down at the watch on her wrist: 7: 00 P.M.

"We only have ten hours and a day to finish," she said in panic. "We don't know how many steps and locations we have to go through to reach the finish. By the time we actually finish, we'll be dead."

"Stop it," Samus told her. "We have enough time to relax and get through this. Nothing would be done with talking such stuff."

"I wouldn't call seeing one of us players falling to his death in a rigged elevator relaxing," Pit muttered anxiously. "How do you know if this host guy is telling the truth? What is this is---"

"Why are the lights still on in every single building?" Popo wondered out loud. "Are people still working inside these buildings?"

"This is so confusing," Ness exclaimed in a voice of desperation. He noticed a man sweeping the side of a building with a mop in his right hand and a vacuum in his other. He approached the man with no hesitation.

"Excuse me," Ness asked him in a quick manner, "I remembered this place four years ago being full of cars and people traveling from place to place, and...I need an explanation," he said, curtailing his demand.

"Ahaha, for four years you've missed a lot," the man said, scooping a patch of leaves into the wet, soggy bristles of his mop. "Have you ever heard of the Eagland Stock Program, issued two years ago?" The players looked at Ness, who shook his head in a negative response.

"It's every four months," the man explained, "And people go there to sell their stocks. Three years ago, Fourside had banned Stock Market trades within the town after the mayor was found in a gruesome crime scene, in Onett."

"Mayor Watlers?" Ness asked in alarm. "What happened? A crime scene?"

"He died," the man continued. "That's all I'll tell you for now. So now, with banks closing and stock values getting higher with stock not being sold, strikes everywhere formed for a week. Then, the ESP opened up in Twoson, where every four months, stock prices in that company would reveal their results for their end session, and people always make profits no matter what with the increasing interests in banks. Every four months, nearly ninety percent of townspeople of Fourside travel to Twoson."

"So this place really isn't deserted," Jigglypuff confirmed. "People have just left."

"What's with all the lights?" Popo asked. "They're on in the stores and building. How long do people take to come back?"

"They have been gone for more than a week," he explained. "Electricity can't be shut down in this town during the ESP travels. That's why debts are needed to be paid when investors come back. It's only like a couple of bucks to pay for keeping the elcetric on." The players all nodded slowly and steadily.

"That's all I have for you," the man finished.

"Thanks very much," Ness said, "We appreciated your explanation."

"No prob," the man replied. "It's my duty to stay here and explain to you guys, after all. Good luck in whatever you're doing with those technology equipment around your bodies." The players looked at the man, who had a mellow face and had no sign of being aware of their explosive danger. He was the only person so far that the players believed would be able to get their message, a message they had been planning to work out since they were traveling their way across the water to the next location.

"So," started Pit. "Umm, to tell the truth, these harnesses aren't even ours. In fact, we don't know why they're around us!"

"Hmm?" the man hummed in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"What you see is..." Pit said cautiously, "These harness devices are too heavy, and we want to be more comfortable. We had to wear these for a previous lab experiment, but now they seem to be stuck."

"That's not good," the man commented.

"So what we're trying to do," Pit explained, "We want to..." He then pointed two of his fingers at his mouth, and as clear as he could, mouthed three words to the puzzled man in silence.

"Take them off?" the man asked. A beep was heard from the harness of Pit suddenly, and the players' bodies froze instantly in shock. They instantly stopped talking and proceeded to walk away from man at a fast gait without a word.

The players ran back to the empty road of granite in alarm and realization, and as they ran down the street more, they walked further down the road in silence. The place they had finally ended up was a block away from where they had recently been before. They all looked at each other.

"He ears-hay us-ay," Jigglypuff realized. "Speakers in arnesses-hay analyze ords-way, en-thay ansmits-tray o-tay im-hay by omputer-cay ext-tay." The others nodded, understanding a new feature of the unfair game they were playing.

"Why did my harness beep?" Pit asked. "Why did it do that?"

"I...can't say it," Jigglypuff said.

"I think thats where you're wrong," Samus told her. "The host doesn't care if we find out how this works. We can say right now, that words are analyzed into these speakers to appear on his computer screen back at his home. He's reading every single word I'm saying right now. This second."

The players thought back at the time of Wario's death at Noki Bay, and their discussion in the boat about trying to find up a plan to somehow communicate with a non-player about their game. The host had been knowing what they had been going through their entire time, throughout the entire game. He knew that Ness, Samus, Pit, Popo, and Jigglypuff were all in Fourside. And, as they assumed, the host had enough evidence in the other players' talking, Roy's, Dr. Mario's, Fox's, and DK's, to identify where each player was presently located

"This isn't against the rules, explaining how things work is not against the rules. He just wouldn't like it."

"Then what were the rules not allowed again?" Popo asked. "I don't remember them."

"Interacting and telling a non-player about the game," Jigglypuff said. "Pit, that's exactly what you did, when the voice of a non-player was heard saying the words 'Remove Harness'. The host sees everything we say, and with that evidence, I'm suspecting that he too has voice analyzers to separate who says what."

"This is hell confusing," Pit admitted.

SPKR POPO: HE HEARS WHAT WE ARE SAYING THIS ENTIRE GAME HE WOULD ALWAYS KNOW WHERE WE ARE WITH THESE SPEAKERS.

SPKR PIT: I SEE NOW WHAT YOU GUYS ARE SAYING IF WE DONT TALK AT ALL HE WOULDNT KNOW ANYTHING HE DOESN'T HAVE LIKE VIDEO CAMERAS OR ANYTHING TO ACTUALLY SEE WHAT WE'RE DOING. ONLY WORDS ON A COMPUTER.

SPKR POPO: ARCGHPHM

SPKR JIGG P: DUST IS PICKING UP AROUND THIS STREET

ASST SAMUS: SO IF WE HOLD BACK OUR TALKING AT ALL TIMES, HE WON'T KNOW A CLUE ON WHERE WE COULD BE. BUT IT WOULD BE DIFFICULT TO REFRAIN FROM TALKING.

SPKR NESS: I REMEMBER THE OTHER RULE THAT IS NOT ALLOWED TO BE BROKEN.

"Do not use powers that you have personally, which will give you an advantage over the others," Ness said. Pit looked at him in a way that made Ness have the slightest uncomfort.

"Let's just go now," Jigglypuff said. "We'll be wasting seconds. We need to hurry."

"Go where?" Samus asked, leaning against the side of a lamppost as if she were in no hurry. "The clue told us to come here, and we're here now."

"That helicopter recording," Popo remembered. He took the small device out from his pocket and pressed the green play button. After a few buzzes and non-describable fuzzes, the recording started to play.

**_"Hurry up...hurry up,"_** the unknown voice spoke out. **_"I will beat you all, and it won't matter then."_** The players exchanged awkward glances, before the heavy rhythm they had heard earlier became audible. The roaring of the helicopter. Popo pressed the stop button.

"Helicopter," Popo stated. "Ness you know this city by heart, don't you? Anything with relating to helicopters here?"

"Head Tower," he said, pointing to a building so close to the group that they wondered if they place they had ended up was more than just a coincidental travel. The building stood at least twenty stories high, and as far as any of them could see, it was the tallest of the bunch of buildings that was scattered across Fourside. At the very top of the building was a large platform, too far and hard for any of them to realize that it was a helicopter landing base.

**"Hello players. Welcome to the next location of the Skilling Game." ** Popo's harness was setting off a message as the players listened. Prior to setting foot on Fourside, everyone but Popo had turned the volume off of their harness speakers, in order to receive an understandable message, contrasting to what had happened earlier that day at Delfino Plaza.

"I know you're listening to every word we say, you dickhead," mumbled Pit.

**"I can assume you have the clue** **to continue on and get closer to there the finish is. That recording is a mirror, a mirror which will reveal more of what belongs as true of false. It also contains a recording of a sound that have probably heard numerous times in your life. Are you feeling lucky tonight? Hurry up and finish your way." **As the message ended as usual, they all stood in deep silence as the empty crossroad around them seemed to lure them into a pessimistic trance.

"Let's go," Samus said in an uneasy tone. "Let's go to that building."

* * *

"This building is deserted?" Ness realized in alarm. 

"Of course it's deserted, remember what that man told us?" reminded Pit.

"No," said Ness. "This place is an abandoned structure, there's dust and cardboard everywhere. I remembered this building to be full of people and workers. It was so crowded that nobody could pass through certain areas." The outside of the building had fooled the five of them into expecting to see a neat and well-made interior in the inside of the building, but they were all wrong. Cobwebs lit every corner, paint had been smeared off the stairs, and the wallpaper was slowly tearing off the walls little by little, eventually.

"We still can't pass through certain areas," said Popo, knocking down a diagonally laid board of plywood over as it fell to the ground, creating a dry wave that spread into the air.

"Let's take these stairs," Jigglypuff said, and she took a step up wooden stairs coated with dust. A creak was heard from a few flights above her, and as she took another step up, a section of the wooden structure crashed down swiftly but noisily through the spiraling stairs, plywood and dust falling from high above crashing directly in front of startled Jigglypuff. She let out a small shriek as she stepped back onto the ground.

"Of course Jiggypuff, why don't we use the stairs?" said Pit, his voice filled with obvious sarcasm. She shot back a glare.

"Even if these stairs _were _okay and well, it would be quite a journey," Samus said. "My body is very weak from carrying this harness device."

"I feel sore," admitted Popo. "It hurts too much."

"Me too," said Ness. "I'm trying my best to ignore the pain. I'm beginning to think that these harnesses are you going to kill us with over-pressure before they could blow up."

"They won't blow up if we all make it," Jigglypuff said. "The host said so."

"Who is this host?" Pit asked. "I mean, why is he doing this to us? What does he want with us? This sick bastard must be a mental psychopath with nothing to do but put peoples' lives at risk and tell them to go from place to place!"

"He's not a psychopath," insisted Samus. "He's a smart and intelligent person if he knows how to build all his technology and able to set constructions from place to place. See how tight these harnesses are, and see all of its complicated functions? He's not a psychopath. He's sane and clever."

"It's part of the game, isn't it?" Jigglypuff said. "A task, game, or torture adventure that we got into inadvertently."

"We signed up for this game," remembered Ness. "Remember that day in the mansion, when all nine of us got that advertisement? We were the only people who still had the copy to sign up. We were all ambitious, bored out of our minds, and too tired that night to think. We were having a vacation. Right now, all that I know is that we made the wrong choice. Three hundred thousand dollars is not enough to pay for what we're going through."

"Because it's not real," Samus said. Everyone turned to look at her suddenly, and she replied by holding up the clue recording that they had received from Noki Bay.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Pit questioned.

"What did the host say in the message from the harness, just ten minutes ago?" Samus asked them.

"Something about hurrying up, and about the helicopter sound," Pit said.

Popo let out a cough as dust entered into his mouth, before he saw something against the side of the dust-covered wall. The wall had its wallpaper shredded into strips at the floor of its base. He reached over to it, and pressed into the grimy indent.

"The host also said something about a mirror," Samus remembered. "I just found out what to do." She pressed a button on the recorder device marked with an arrow pointing backwards, which none of them besides her had found previously.

"A mirror," realized Jigglypuff. "Backwards!" Jigglypuff was correct, as the tape record was reversed in order inside the slot at the pres of Samus' button. The recording emitted was so vague and hidden, it send a chill up on each players' back as they listened to the new, subliminal message:

_"---zzzzphpzhzzphzzzz The truth must be known. Points are n...ow use...less, money does not...exist the prize is only...staying..alive...sukirin geimu yuesutiesu inu...mainasu...kiring getsu inu...femerefregghvusurito kafu shoda desuiuo mit subishi toyo tantoebi dhshshushyeget...phphphzphzpzzpzhzz---" _The recording turned back to its original position within the device with a snap, as Samus pressed the stop button with a worried look.

"Is it just me," said Pit slowly, "Or did that message just say that this...game's prize is only staying alive?" The looks on the players' faces were full of confusion and hidden dread.

"These points are just a gimmick?" Jigglypuff exclaimed in a new awareness. "This whole thing about winning a prize is false...oh no." Her face dropped immensely.

"No!" said Ness in a tone of exasperation and horror, as he felt the harness around his body for the umpteenth time in the past hours. "I knew we shouldn't of signed up! This is all fake, all nine of us were wrong!"

"You aren't the only one in danger," Pit said. "I hate this game. I knew that from the start this was all a hoax! I knew it!"

"Nine of us?" Jigglypuff asked in confusion. But no one heard her over Popo's sudden discovery, who the whole time, was waiting for something to appear. The wall in front of Popo opened up like a hidden compartment a magician would have besides his stage, or like the jaws of a great white digging into a disabled and piddling prey, and after a small _"ding" _was heard, the area of the first building floor was lightened up. Elevator music was heard.

"An...elevator," Ness said, dumbfounded and relaxed. "Thanks Popo for reminding us, my sixteen year old brain is getting too old to even consider using this."

"Music," sighed Samus. "This won't cheer us up at all." The tune had an optimistic curl to it, as if luring the players to get closer."

"This has striking similarities to a previous situation, doesn't it?" said Jigglypuff.

"I couldn't care less to be honest," Pit said. "Our next clue is at the top floor."

The five of them boarded the elevator one by one into the dusty compartment, then stared at the button manual of the transportation device. Ness pressed the last button from the bottom, and the doors immediately closed as the elevator brought them to their next destination of their game; the top floor. As the elevator made its rugged way to the seventh floor, their game, with two people dead and one soon to be, would become even more insane. And heated.

* * *

**Thanks to you all for reading! Stuff are you going to be heated in the next chapter.**

**Literally.  
**


	11. Chapter 11: Tunnel of Wax

**Wow, long update! Sorry for not continuing this story for such a long time, and I hope you enjoy it. I've been too busy all of a sudden. Okay, please enjoy this chapter. **

* * *

_**Chapter 11: Tunnel Of Wax**_

They had reached the top floor of the building. It was as rusty as they had imagined, and so torn down and distasteful looking that the players couldn't imagine how the next clue could be in the area they were brought to. A red number_ **7**_ was imprinted across the side of the bricked wall, and as their steps were brought closer to the back of the room, they could make out the circular shape of a metal object in the side of the wall.

"It's a latch," Pit said, and taped to the front of it he saw a tape recorder, new and dust-free. Pit pulled it off from the latch and pressed the play button, as everyone leaned closer to hear.

"**Are you feeling lucky? Look further behind. There is a latch in front of you, player, and the next clue just lays on the other side of the tunnel. Retrieve it, and make your way back across. Be quick, because once activated, this tunnel would become its own death trap in a matter of five minutes. This is the Golden Passage. Make your choice."**

There was the usual moment of silence that followed after the end of the tape. The five of them just stood there, looking at the closed latch in slight discomfort.

"Well then," said Ness, "Let's go."

"Wait first," Popo said cautiously. "It says that once activated, it becomes a death trap. Maybe this is more dangerous than we think it is."

"Then what are we going to do?" Pit asked him. "We can't just sit here. We have to take chances."

"No, we should stay safe," Popo argued. "I don't trust taking chances anymore, Wario took chances, and he got killed."

"That's because he was unlucky," Pit stated.

"I agree with Popo," said Jigglypuff. "We need to find a way to open this latch, without being near it. Does anyone have a piece of string?"

"It's perfectly safe for now," Samus said in an exasperated tone, and she pulled open the latch from the handle on its right. As the latch opened, it revealed a long, narrow tunnel that lead a distance down to the other side of the building. It was like a hidden shaft way, but coated all over on the walls of the shaft was a clear, gold-like substance that traveled its way down the entire tunnel. Samus reached out to touch the odd substance; it was as hard as glass.

"It is the Golden Passage," Pit said.

"We have to crawl through this tunnel?" Jigglypuff said out loud. "What is that stuff on the walls?"

"I think it's hard wax," Samus said, pulling her hand away and stepping back so the others could look through the hole. The passageway seemed so dark and shiny towards the other side of the building, and they couldn't imagine what danger lay ahead of them as they would crawl through, as a group.

"We all have to make it to the other side," said Ness, in a voice that was nervous and determined at the same time.

"I don't think I could fit in there," Pit admitted. "Not to mention crawl."

"We only need one person," said Samus, as everyone turned to look at her. "Retrieving the clue is all we need to do to make it. One of us could bring it here and we'll all head off to our next location."

"That's true," Ness said. "But the question is who will?" The players looked at one another, careful and clueless as they each turned to the floor simultaneously. None of them were willing to travel across a death trap.

"Does this remind anyone of that story with the cat and the mice?" Pit said.

"I do," Jigglypuff remembered. "One of the mice thought of tying a bell around the cat's neck, so whenever the cat was close to the mice, they would hear it."

"But when one of the mice brought up the question of who was willing to tie the bell around the cat's neck---"

"They were silent and dumbfounded," Ness finished. "Just like us."

"And the moral of the story is---"

"Choose the smallest people in a situation like this," Pit said conclusively. Their eyes turned to a player standing besides the open passageway: Popo.

"Wait, no," Popo argued. "I can't crawl in there."

"You're the only one who could fit," Ness pointed out. "And you're quick I'm sure." Everyone knew it wasn't easy for Popo, whose couldn't keep his eyes of the dark tunnel that lay ahead.

"Five minutes it a lot of time to go and come back," Samus reassured. "I know you can make it easily."

"What will wax do?" he asked, frightened and still not convinced. Samus went over to him and knelt down.

"We'll be here, calling to you on the way," said Samus. "I can see the other side from here. I'm sure it'll be easy. If you have any trouble at any time, just crawl back right away."

"If I feel like I need to, I'll crawl back?" Popo asked, his voice still trembling as he looked towards the length of the long shaft.

"You can come back as quickly as you could," Samus reassured again. "Now, enter and come back with the clue so we can…" As she stood up, Popo immediately dashed into the tunnel without any warning. The four players immediately pushed their way to look into the hole, and in the dark, glossy tunnel, they saw Popo, rapidly crawling to make his way to the other side.

"Popo, are you okay?" shouted Ness, along with other shouts that echoed through the shaft. "Popo?"

"Come on, you can make it!" Pit encouraged, as the others took his way and cheered him on, with the look of dread no far away from their minds. He was already more than halfway across.

Popo crawled as fast as he could, and saw the end of the tunnel not far away from him. He crawled faster and faster, his legs and hands sliding across the hard wax that resembled marble furniture. His was as perplexed as ever as he continued to make his way across, foot by foot, as he turned to look back the other way at the lighted entrance. He saw the others, cheering. The others were counting on him, and at the moment, he felt as if each of their lives relied on his performance in the Golden Passage.

At last, his hand reached something hard at the end of the tunnel. It was another latch door, and with his strength he pushed it open to release a swoosh of air over his tired body. His hands touched a cold, dusty concrete floor, and as he smiled in success, he went to lift his left leg out of the tunnel. His smile disappeared when he felt a slight stickiness that seemed to glue his leg every so slightly of the floor of the tunnel. He pulled his leg away, and instead of focusing his attention back to the tunnel, he focused it on his way of getting the next clue.

Above him was a flight of stairs, which he ran up nimbly to open a metal door at the top. It had the words, "ROOF FLOOR" printed at the top in large letters, and he pushed it open.

Indeed, he found himself on the roof of the building. The chilly air made him wish he was back in the humidity of the awkward tunnel, but he continued on to a side of the roof. There, on the roof, was a large platform that Popo had remembered seeing from the ground of the city. It was the helicopter landing base.

Square in the middle of the helicopter landing base was a small, metal machine in the shape of a rectangle. He climbed the ladder onto the helicopter landing base and went up to the machine and looked at it. There was a red button, and below it, a dispenser. Without thinking, he went to push the red button, only to receive a large shock that made him pull his hand away in alarm. Mistaken for a static shock, Popo attempted to push the button again, only to receive another electric shock even stronger than before. In annoyance, he saw something on the side of the helicopter base. It was a wooden stick.

He grabbed a hold of the wooden stick and used it to push the button, and this time, successfully. The dispenser opened, and a small, orb-like object came out and rolled to Popo's knees as he grabbed it into his hands. He had obtained the clue.

Back in the seventh floor of the building, the four players waited anxiously for Popo's return. All was silence as they stood as close as they could to the entrance of the wax tunnel. They suddenly all noticed something peculiar, as they looked around them in confusion, then all looked at the entrance of the wax tunnel. The temperature was rising.

"We need to help Popo," Jigglypuff whispered, as they all stepped back away from the shaft with panic. Wax was dripping out of the entrance

"Popo!" yelled Ness into the shaft, as the walls started to glow a lighted yellow. "Popo!"

Before Popo could make his way off of the platform, a distant whir was heard above him. As he looked up, a blinding light in the night sky made him duck and cover his eyes, as the whirring increased more and more.

He jumped off of the helicopter base in an alarmed hurry, as the object above him, no other than a helicopter, cautiously yet quickly made its way to land onto the base. The propeller of the helicopter made a rotational force of wind on the roof of the building, as Popo stepped away from the base of the platform.

Popo kept his eye on the small machine of orb-like clues besides the back of the helicopter, as the tail rotor of the vehicle whipped it harshly, tearing it open as the machine and numerous orbs sailed over the edge of the building. The helicopter engine started to lessen, and Popo was able to look more clearly at the vehicle until the engine was entirely off. A figure stepped out from the cockpit door.

"Dr…Mario?" Popo shouted out loud in surprise. Popo was correct, as Dr. Mario stumbled across the platform and tripped over the metal edge of the helicopter landing platform, falling six feet into the dusty floor of the roof. Popo immediately ran towards him.

"Dr. Mario!" he exclaimed, helping the doctor to his feet. He had made it to the next location was well.

Dr. Mario suddenly got up from his silence and grasped Popo into his clutched hands, as Popo struggled to break away.

"I want the money!" Dr. Mario shouted in a rough voice into the poor Ice Climber's face. "Where am I? Where's the money!"

"Doctor Mario, there is no money!" Popo told him in terror. As he looked into the doctor's face, he saw that his eyes were bloodshot, his breath smelled like vodka and bitter, and that his nose was dripping so much that Popo looked away in disgust and fear. Dr. Mario grinned sharply.

Suddenly, Popo broke away as he was let go. Dr. Mario turned around, took something out of his pocket and stuffed it into his mouth in a quick manner. Then as if the two pills he had just swallowed activated his sickness, he vomited all over the floor in front of him, as Popo let out a cry of fright and ran towards the open door where he had come from.

"Help me!" he cried out to no one, as he closed the door behind him in fear.

With terror inside him, he started to run down the flight of stairs, but then stopped suddenly. There was a warm, toasty feeling around him that he hadn't felt before. With dread, he looked down at the open latch hole that led into the tunnel, the passageway that would bring him back to the other side.

It was letting out a glowing shine, and fumes were visible and being emitted from the small entrance. As he took more steps to the bottom of the stairs, the heat got more overwhelming as he looked into the full length of the shaft and saw the wax, all coated around every part of the tunnel. But this time, it wasn't hard anymore. It resembled honey, already leaving a pool of wax which had dripped out of the entrance. The trap had fully resembled a deadly Golden Passage.

* * *

**What will happen in the next chapter? Will there be a death, and will Popo make it? **

**Thanks you everyone for reading, I hope you're enjoying the story!**


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